Indices and Identity

Under what conditions are expressions of a language the same; when are theydifferent? Indices and Identity focuses on this question in the context of the theory of anaphoraand on the role of indices in characterizing syntactic and semantic identity of expressions.Fiengoand May develop two main themes within the theory of anaphora. The first pertains to the meaning ofcoindexing and non-coindexing -- the correspondence between indexical relations among expressionsand the valuation relation that holds among them -- while the second is the development ofDependency Theory, the theory of the relations of occurrences of indices. The novelty of Fiengo andMay's approach lies with their characterization of indexical dependencies and the conditions underwhich structures manifest the same or different dependency.In particular, Indices and Identityemphasizes issues raised by strict and sloppy identity in ellipsis, exploring what Fiengo and Maycall "the eliminative puzzles of ellipsis." The significance of these puzzles is that they show theshortcomings of current theories of anaphora in ellipsis, while illustrating an application ofDependency Theory to complex cases of strict and sloppy identity.Elliptical contexts in turn lead toconsideration of the embedding of the formal syntactic notions of identity arising from indices anddependencies within more general notions of structural identity. This relates to a consideration ofthe foundations of reconstruction, which, the authors argue, is syntactic identity up to indexicalidentity and vehicle change -- variation in the syntactic form of expression of arguments.The bookconcludes with a discussion of the relation of reconstruction, logical representation in grammar,and the application of grammatical constraints. The discussion focuses on antecedent containeddeletion, and stands independently as a comprehensive study of this construction.Linguistic InquiryMonograph No. 24