The Pronoun Sam ‘Self’ in Serbo-Croatian and Binding Theory

Abstract

We explore the distribution of the pronoun sam ‘self’ with the reflexive sebe ‘oneself’ and the pronominal njega ‘him’ in Serbo-Croatian (SC), in contexts in which the resulting pronoun complexes sebe samog and njega samog are used as arguments in the (seemingly) local domain with their antecedent (e.g. Pera je kritikovao sebe/njega samog ‘Pera criticized himself’). We focus on the question of why the pronoun sam enables the use of the pronominal (njega in this case) in the local domain, in violation of Principle B of the canonical binding theory (Chomsky, 1981, 1986). Our analysis is based on the intensifying nature of the pronoun sam, as a result of which this pronoun imposes a focal status on the constituent it combines with, thus extracting it from its argument position into a higher hierarchical position in the structure. Following the proposal of Reinhart & Reuland (1993), binding conditions fail to apply in such contexts, as the pronoun no longer figures as a co-argument of its antecedent. We also look at the differences in the distribution of the pronoun complexes sebe samog and njega samog: the former combines only with (seemingly) local antecedents and passes tests that diagnose syntactic binding, while the latter combines with both local and non-local antecedents and passes tests that diagnose coreference. The observed and discussed facts favor Reinhart & Reuland’s (1993) theory of pronominal coreference to the classical approach proposed by Chomsky (1981, 1986).