Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

taking English and Catalan as representative examples:
(67) a. Johni ... is [ SC ei himself ] ...
b. En Joani ... és [ SC ei ell (mateix) ]
Suppose that, in this particular kind of structure, the predicative element has the
exceptional property of being coindexed with its subject in the kind of coindexing relevant for
Binding Theory.
What kind of indexation is it? One possibility is reference indexation. In the present case,
however, we cannot simply say that the subject (John/en Joan) and the predicate (himself/ell)
actually co-refer, for one is an Argument and the other is a predicate. Suppose, however, that the
type of indexation relevant for BT is that of denotation. In fact the subject and the predicate
denote the same ('John'), even if, respectively, in one case it is a token ('the actual instantiation of
the entity John') and in the other a prototype ('prototypical John').
With such a structure in 0, however, if we want to treat himself/ell (mateix) as an element
subject to BT, we face an obvious problem: if himself is an anaphor bound by the subject in 0.a),
it will be locally bound by the I-subject. Since this local binding holds the same for the Catalan
example, the prediction would be that there should be no contrast between the two (sets of)
languages: both should have an anaphor.
On the other hand, though, since we have assumed that himself/ell (mateix) are predicates
in these constructions, they should not be subject to Binding Theory, if BT only applies to A-
positions. So, suppose that their insensitivity to binding by the I-subject is due to the simple fact
they are not Arguments, BT being a theory only relevant for Arguments.
Suppose, however, that the SC which appears in these constructions, as a propositional
constituent, can be assumed to be an Argument: from a strictly formal point of view, it would be
the Argument subcategorized by the copular verb. Although no predication relation holds
between a copular verb and its Small Clause complement, because the copular verb does not
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