Eric Reuland, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1944. Ph.D. from the University of Groningen. Professor of Linguistics at Utrecht University and Director of the Research Institute of Language and Speech and the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics.
Fellow (1 September 1996 – 31 January 1997)
My long-term research interest is the nature of the relation between the linguistic system and systems of language use. My research focused on Binding Theory, trying to gain an understanding of why natural languages distinguish between pronouns and anaphors and why these are subject to special interpretive conditions. The following hypothesis served as a starting point: that economical considerations govern the choice between modules to be accessed in order to achieve a certain interpretive result: where the choice exists, a module that is central to the linguistic computational system is preferred over otherwise available alternatives. At NIAS I carried out my research as a participant of the theme group “An Encyclopaedia of Syntactic Case Studies”.
My own contributions to the compendium will be in the form of cases on Logophoricity, the Typology of Anaphoric Expressions, Long-distance Binding, and Bound Variable Binding.
My stay has been extremely profitable. I have been able to work on three article manuscripts, “Primitives of Binding”, “Logophoricity as Orientation”, and “Long-distance ‘Binding’ in Icelandic”, which have all been completed by now. The first manuscript has been submitted, the other two have been accepted for publication. Together, the work on the articles will form the basis of a larger work on binding that I will continue working on in the coming years.