page_title: Bound variable pronoun
section_title: C-command
hierarchical_section_title: Bound variable pronoun / Syntax / C-command
caption_attribution_description: English: "Mary likes herself", adapted from Sportiche et al., 2014: 161 (17), drawn using phpSyntaxTree
context_page_description: A bound variable pronoun is a pronoun that has a quantified determiner phrase – such as every, some, or who – as its antecedent.
  An example of a bound variable pronoun in English is given in.
  Each manager exploits the secretary who works for him.
  In, the quantified DP is each manager, and the bound variable pronoun is him. It is a bound variable pronoun because it does not refer to one single entity in the world. Rather, its reference varies depending on which entities are encompassed by the phrase each manager. For example, if each manager encompasses both John and Adam, then him will refer variably to both John and Adam. The meaning of this sentence in this case would then be:
  John₁ exploits the secretary who works for him₁, and Adam₂ exploits the secretary who works for him₂.
  where him first refers to John, and then to Adam.
  In linguistics, the occurrence of bound variable pronouns is important for the study of the syntax and semantics of pronouns. Semantic analyses focus on the interpretation of the quantifiers. Syntactic analyses focus on issues relating to co-indexation, binding domain, and c-command.
context_section_description: If a pronoun has a quantified expression as antecedent, the pronoun must be c-commanded by this antecedent. An antecedent c-commands a pronoun if, when observing the structure of the sentence, a sister of the antecedent dominates the pronoun.
  The c-command relationship can be shown by drawing a tree for the sentence. Take, for instance, the following tree diagram for example (4b).
  Here, Mary is the antecedent, and herself is the pronoun. The sister of Mary is the T' node, and this node dominates herself. So Mary c-commands herself in this instance.
  When discussing bound variable pronouns, the pronoun is said to be bound if it is c-commanded by the quantified determiner phrase that is its antecedent.
caption: "Mary likes herself", adapted from Sportiche et al., 2014: 161 (17), drawn using phpSyntaxTree
exif: {}