SGER: The Historical Development of the English Anaphora System

在古英语（700 - 1150）中，“Everyone defended him”可以理解为现代英语中的“him”，指的是上下文中给定的个体，或者可以理解为“Everyone defended himself”，“him”理解为语义上将动词的宾语与主语“Everyone”联系起来。该项目记录了反身代词（c1200）的创建，并提供了它们作为对象到主题的绑定器（16世纪）的强制性使用的定量记录。使用从公元800年到1800年的大约7,500个绑定例子的数据库，该研究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，为什么反身代词不作为拥有者出现（我们不能说“John lost himself's book”，尽管这在带有名词短语反身代词的语言中很常见），而且，关于当前的语法理论，为什么裸露的反身代词只能局部绑定（作为其主语的宾语，但不是例如高级从句的主语：我们不说“John believes that玛丽defended himself”，“himself”理解为绑定到“John”）。最后，本文提出了一种新的历史变迁类型和两个新的历史变迁原则。

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.