Binding Theory

This chapter attempts to unify the two types of binding conditions (NIC and Specified Subject Condition) in terms of “Case” and “head-government”, eliminating the reference to either “SUBJECT” or “subject”. It is based on the data from Japanese and English. The unification of the binding conditions in terms of the notion “SUBJECT” crucially depends upon the assumption that AGR contained in the INFL of the finite clause, may function as a subject with respect to binding. The chapter introduces two well-known problems in the binding theory of Japanese. Both problems are concerned with the complementarity of anaphors and pronominals. Roughly speaking, the complement clause will be a binding category for anaphors and pronominals if they are lexically Case marked there. On the other hand, anaphors and pronominals lack a binding category if they are only non-lexically Case marked. N. Chomsky’s approach constitutes an improvement of the binding theory over its predecessors in a number of areas, and has certain intuitive appeal.