Binding conditions in Young Children's Grammar: Interpretation of Pronouns Inside Conjoined NPs

Abstract

Some researchers attempt to explain children's prolonged delay in showing knowledge of Binding Condition B (Chien and Wexler (1990)) as an indication that Binding Condition B is relevant only to binding relations that involve pronouns interpreted as bound variables. This study extends the study of children' s knowledge of Condition B to a construction containing pronouns embedded in conjoined noun phrases (NPs). Pronouns bound by a quantifier were included in the study. The results were surprising. A group of children accepted bound variable pronouns in violation of Condition B when the pronoun was embedded in a conjoined NP. The results support the argument of Reinhart and Reuland (1993) that anaphoric relations are constrained by more than one module of grammar.