Abstract

In this article we discuss the anaphoric systems of four West-Germanic languages, focusing in particular on the properties of Frisian and German, as compared to English and Dutch. In line with the approach in Reinhart and Reuland (1993) it is argued that the binding conditions A and B govern the reflexive marking of predicates. In particular, condition B requires a reflexive predicate to be reflexive marked. A general definition of ‘being a reflexive marker’ is proposed, which includes the German stressed sich. The occurrence of bound pronouns versus simplex anaphors is governed by the chain condition, which requires that only the head of a chain be fully specified for grammatical features, including Case. It is shown that the differences in the distribution of bound pronouns in these languages follows from independent differences between their Case systems.

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