Deriving the de re blocking effect
Deniz Satik
April 2021
 

This paper presents and attempts to account for novel empirical data from English in which the de re blocking effect–that an obligatorily de se anaphor cannot be c-commanded by its de re counterpart–is attested. I argue that at least some instances of the de re blocking effect cannot be accounted for via syntactic accounts, contra Percus and Sauerland (2003b) and Anand (2006). Via experimental evidence, it is shown that the de re blocking effect takes place with passives and across clause boundaries with certain predicates but not with others, and in a completely local configuration with PRO. Given the difference between blocking with PRO and the other kinds, I argue that there are at least two different kinds of de re blocking effects. I propose that some instances of blocking may involve lexical restrictions on thematic relations between de se and de re counterparts.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/005550
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: To be submitted
keywords: de re, de se, de re blocking effect, dream, pro, control, theta-roles, semantics
previous versions: v1 [November 2020]
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