On the (im-)possibility of reflexive binding into the subject of German experiencer-object verbs
Simon Masloch, Johanna Poppek, Tibor Kiss
September 2024 

This paper presents an acceptability rating study on the possibility of reflexive binding into the subject of German experiencer-object psych verbs. Experiencer-object verbs are claimed to license exceptional binding patterns in many languages, but analyses differ in whether they relate this behaviour to a peculiar syntactic structure of the verbs or independently available logophoric binding. An explanation in terms of logophoricity is not viable in German, since the German reflexive sich does not allow a logophoric interpretation. The study shows that reflexive binding into the subject of German experiencer-object verbs is only possible if the antecedent precedes the reflexive in linear order and thus c-commands it. The pattern observed poses a problem for predicate-based theories of binding and it is only explainable if sentence-level constituents in German are base-generated in their surface positions or scrambling does not reconstruct for binding.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008161 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	to appear in Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics, CSSP 2023 proceedings
keywords:	binding, german, experiencer-object verbs, psych verbs, experimental linguistics, bayesian, acceptability rating, base generation, base order, reconstruction, logophoricity, syntax
previous versions:	v1 [May 2024]
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