What is a Binding Condition C violation?

[Tarheel]

Exactly what is a Binding Condition C violation?

(Note from mod: Question moved from another forum, mid-thread)

 

[jutfrank]

Here's the example given on Wikipedia:

John asked Mary to wash him.

In this sentence, we could interpret that John and him are the same person, so there's no 'binding' violation here. (Equally, it may be that John and him are different people.) Now look what happens if we swap the two words:

He asked Mary to wash John.

With this word order, we cannot interpret that He and John are the same person. There's a violation of the rule that allows us to identify one thing with another.

 

[Tarheel]

My guess us that fewer than 1% of native speakers know that term, but it must have some usefulness or why invent it?

"John asked Mary to wash him."

We can say there is some ambiguity there, but there isn't. Why? Context will always tell us what is meant by that.

"He asked Mary to wash John.'

No native speaker will be confused by that. "He" and "John" are clearly not the same person.

 

[jutfrank]

My guess us that fewer than 1% of native speakers know that term, but it must have some usefulness or why invent it?

Far fewer than 1%. This is a highly technical term used in the academic fields of semantics and syntax.

"John asked Mary to wash him."

We can say there is some ambiguity there, but there isn't. Why? Context will always tell us what is meant by that.

You're absolutely right and that's a very good point. However, context is not as important a consideration to syntacticians as it is to UE forum members. These academics are interested in finding out how much they can say about phrases and sentences that are out of context.

"He asked Mary to wash John.'

No native speaker will be confused by that. "He" and "John" are clearly not the same person.

That's right. This is an example of a case where context is not important. For that reason, we can say that there must be something 'going on'—an underlying linguistic rule that helps us understand why He and John are not the same person, and this rule must be related to the order of the words.

 

[probus]

Native speakers of any language have no need for grammar rules. They are useful for acquiring additional languages and I guess they are interesting to some other people, but most people haven't given a moment's thought to grammar since their school days.