Antisymmetry and the Leftness Condition: leftness as anti-c-command

This paper proposes a restatement of the Leftness Condition on quantifier binding in configurational terms in the framework of Kayne's (1994) Antisymmetry Theory. The Leftness Condition is reduced to an anti-c-command condition whereby a syntactic constituent that depends on a variable for its denotation cannot asymmetrically c-command that variable. It is argued that this condition also constrains denotational equality between two R-expressions that independently denote the same referent, thus subsuming Principle C. This proposal yields a unified account of strong, weak, weakest, and secondary crossover. I also take into account Culicover & Jackendoff's (1995) argument that binding is sensitive to Conceptual Structure superiority; I argue that in the framework of Representational Modularity (Jackendoff 1997) CS-superiority, asymmetric c-command, and PF precedence may correlate in virtue of correspondence rules. This suggests that the syntactic component may be thought of as mediating between the inherently linear nature of PF and the inherently recursive nature of Conceptual Structure. © 2001 Blackwell Publishers Ltd.