Abstract:
We
suggest
that data from American Sign Language (ASL) provide overt evidence for
Partee’s and Stone’s claim that natural language has anaphoric
constructions in the temporal and modal domains
(Partee 1973, Stone 1997). We provide four arguments. (i) Like nominal
and locative expressions, temporal and modal constructions can
establish loci which can be picked up by later pronouns. (ii) As is the
case in the nominal and locative domains, anaphoric constructions can
involve singular, dual, trial and plural pronouns. (iii) When the
antecedent is existential, we obtain patterns of inference that are
characteristic of E-type anaphora. (iv) Finally, temporal and modal
anaphora gives rise to patterns of ‘locative shift’ that are found with
geographical locations. The last observation suggests that temporal and
modal reference is particularly similar to locative reference.