Ayşenur Coşkun (UCL) - 2025-26 Students
aysenur.coskun.25@ucl.ac.uk

What does coreferential obviation tell us? Revisiting binding principles under phases

Human language faculty has locality restrictions when entities refer to each other. This project
focuses on the syntax and semantics of the complementation clauses and coreferential
possibilities of embedded and matrix subjects in Kazakh and Uyghur in comparison with
Japanese and Turkish. While finite clauses (e.g. Johni said that hei/k read the book.) allow
coreference between the matrix and embedded subjects, non-finite clauses (e.g. Johni wanted
him*i/k to read the book.) force disjoint reference between the matrix and embedded subjects.
The obligatory disjoint reference in non-finite clauses is attributed to a phenomenon called
Subjunctive Obviation (SO).

The general question is to what extent the Phase Theory (Chomsky 2008) holds in terms of the
Binding Theory (BT) (Chomsky 1981), and if the phases are the answer for the obviation. This
project will challenge the Phase Theory by investigating if sentence structures have one unified
locality domain or if phases truly exist as separate domains, as the theory suggests.
The comparative approach allows for the elaboration of falsifiable hypotheses on how these
languages deal with subjunctive obviation that can be extended to other languages and language
families. The approach anchors the research into a rigorous linguistic framework that allows
for broader application.

Principal Supervisor: Prof. Ad Neeleman