Interpretation of the antecedent for the English pro-form one

Abstract

This paper investigates what kind of semantic and pragmatic constraints are imposed on the relationship between the English pro-form one and its antecedent in inter-sentences or inside sentences. A pro-form, which lacks its own semantic content, is a kind of anaphoric expression whose interpretation can be obtained only by having an anaphoric relationship with the antecedent (Huddleston & Pullum 2002). A traditional way of representing the relationship between a pro-form and its antecedent is by using referential indices (usually numerical subscripts) as shown in “What is a dugong_{i, j} like? I have never seen one_i,, so I cannot tell what it_j is like.” NPs with the same subscript are interpreted as coreferential in the sense that they refer to the same entity. The study argues against this view on the following basis: (i) a pro-form is a semantic free variable or a slot which requires filling by pragmatic inference called ‘saturation’; (ii) the semantic function that a pro-form carries out in a sentence is independent of whether it is referential or not; and (iii) when the pro-form one occurs as an N’, the interpretation would be based on the preceding elements of the entire noun phrase including the pro-form concerned as its head.