ABSTRACT
This is not sufficient to define what a variable is, however. By extension from cases like (1 )a, the implicit characterization of variables up to (and not including) Chomsky (1981) has been (2):1
Beyond terminology, the introduction of definition (2) in linguistic theory embodies an implicit empirical claim: it characterizes a class of elements which, one would expect, should exhibit some distinctive property(-ies). This has indeed been argued to be the case (e.g. in Chomsky (1976» with the so-called weak crossover phenomena (henceforth WCO) illustrated in (3) below:2
(3) a. Who does his mother love b. His mother loves everyone
c. His mother loves JOHN d. Sa mere aime qui
(focal stress on John) (non echo wh-in situ)
In these sentences, the pronoun his or sa cannot be bound by who (or by everyone, JOHN, qui respectively).
