6.2. Predicates and pronouns

6.2.0. Overview

6.2.1. Abstracts
A predicate has a certain number of places in a given order, and abstracts are a notation for associating these places with blanks in a sentence.

6.2.2. Bound variables
The ties between places and blanks are made via variables filling the blanks, but it is the association with places that matters, not the specific variables used to make it.

6.2.3. Variables and pronouns
The role of variables in abstracts is in many ways similar to the role of anaphoric pronouns in English, and abstracts can be used to represent the patterns of co-reference exhibited by pronouns.

6.2.4. Expanded and reduced forms
The possibility of replacing pronouns by their antecedents corresponds to the possibility of replacing an analysis using an abstract by one without the abstract.