In Generative Grammar, reconstruction corresponds to the interaction
between displacement structures, such as relativization, dislocation or
interrogation, and structural constraints which drive sentence
interpretation, such as quantifier scope or binding conditions. Building on
novel data from resumption in Semitic and Celtic languages, as well as in
French and in English, our study shows that the traditional analysis of
reconstruction based on the presence of movement is empirically and
theoretically inadequate, and further argues for a new approach based
syntactically on the presence of copies resulting from either movement or
ellipsis, and based semantically on the interpretation of copies as either
indefinite or definite descriptions. Our study finally shows how
reconstruction can be dealt with within a model of the interaction between
grammar and parsing, namely Dynamic Syntax.
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