Literal Reconstruction: the Motivation and Characterization

Abstract

There are cases where a displaced element behaves with respect to binding theory as though occupying some position lower than the one in which it actually appears. Consider the following. (1)Which pictures ofhimselfi/j does Johni think t that Billj likes t? Assuming that himself, being an anaphor, must be c-commanded by its antecedent in order to be appropriately licensed, we are led to conclude that the moved phrase containing the anaphor behaves as if it were in the intermediate or the base position with respect to binding. This phenomenon is known as reconstruction in the literature. Among the possible approaches to this phenomenon are those that are usually referred to as "reconstruction" approaches. Hence, a terminological confusion may arise between "reconstruction" referring to the phenomenon and that referring to the operation. In this paper, however, the term 'reconstruction' refers to the actual lowering operation, not the phenomenon itself, unless otherwise indicated.