TAAN, KO(N) and ANAPHORIC DEPENDENCIES IN TAMIL

Abstract

This thesis aims to explain the distribution of Tamil anaphor taan. The exigency for this arises from the fact that the two predominant theories of anaphora, Standard Binding Theory (SBT) (Chomsky 1981) and the Reflexivity Framework (Reinhart & Reuland 1993) are unable to satisfactorily categorize taan. With respect to SBT, taan cannot be considered an anaphor or a pronominal. R&Rb s categories of SE and SELF anaphors also fail to account for taan. On the other hand, we show that adapting Sellb s (1987) theory of logophoricity is a lot more fruitful. An important corollary of our analysis is that taan is a logophoric pronoun. We show that not only can all the data be explained, it also leads to an analysis of ko(n) as a subject-as-pivot marker. We conclude the thesis by showing that key predictions made by our analysis pans out.