SGER: The Historical Development of the English Anaphora System

在古英语（700 - 1150）中，“Everyone defend him”可以理解为在现代英语中，“him”指的是上下文给定的个体，或者可以理解为“Everyone defend myself”，“him”在语义上被理解为动词的宾语与主语“Everyone”的结合。该项目记录了自反代词的产生（公元1200年），并提供了自反代词作为宾语和主语的粘合剂（16世纪）的强制性使用的定量记录。该研究使用了公元800年至1800年的约7500个绑定实例的数据库，将为现代英语的几个分布事实提供历史解释：值得注意的是，为什么反身词不作为占有物出现（我们不能说“约翰丢了他自己的书”，尽管这在名词短语反身的语言中很常见），而且，就目前的语法理论而言，更具争议的是，为什么裸反身词只能被局部约束（作为对象对其主语，但不是例如对高级从句的主语：我们不会说“约翰相信玛丽为自己辩护”，把“自己”理解为与“约翰”绑定）。最后，本文提出了一种新的历史变迁类型和两种新的历史变迁规律。

In Old English (700 - 1150) "Everyone defended him" could be understood as in Modern English with 'him' referring to a contextually given individual, or it could be understood like "Everyone defended himself", with 'him' understood as semantically binding the object of the verb to the subject 'Everyone'. The project documents the creation of the reflexive pronouns (c1200) and provides a quantitative record of their obligatory use as binders of objects to subjects (the 1500s). Using a database of about 7,500 examples of bindings from 800ad to 1800ad, the study will provide historical explanations for several distributional facts about Modern English: notably, why reflexives do not occur as possessors (we cannot say "John lost himself's book", though this is common in languages with Noun Phrase reflexives), and, much more contentiously with regard to current theories of grammar, why bare reflexives can only be locally bound (as objects to their subjects, but not for example to subjects of higher clauses: we do not say "John believes that Mary defended himself", with 'himself' understood as bound to 'John'). Finally, the study presents a new type of historical change and two new principles governing historical change.