Pronominal Coreference in Ossetic Correlatives and the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Correlatives are a subtype of relative constructions where the subordinate clause precedes the main clause, contains a relative pronoun or DP, and is resumed in the main clause by a full DP containing a personal or demonstrative pronoun (the correlate). Crucially, the subordinate clause does not usually form a constituent with the correlate. Most explicit treatments of the semantics of correlatives adopt, with some variations, the standard set-intersective analysis of relative clauses. In this paper, we demonstrate that the data of Ossetic shows that the relative DP and the correlate are instead linked through pronominal anaphora, such that the relative DP acts as the antecedent and the correlate, as the bound pronominal or definite description. This explains certain effects that are unexpected under the standard analysis of relative clauses, such as the possibility of bridging. The analysis is given a full formalization in terms of LFG, Glue semantics and PCDRT as the semantic metalanguage.