On the Constraints Imposed

The respectively construction in English is exempliied by sentence (1): (1) English and Dutch are used in Guyana and Suriname, respectively. Gr] Example (1) establishes two relations: one between English and Guyana, and one between Dutch and Suriname. Such examples have often been taken to show that respectively induces an intrasentential syntactic dependency among corresponding members of two coordinate structures. Some authors have attempted to use this presumed dependency as evidence for other syntactic claims. For instance, Bar-Hillel and Shamir (1960) and Langendoen (1977) appeal to it as the basis for arguments that English is not a context-free language. Moltmann (1992), in her treatment of the syntax of coordination, proposes that respectively establishes a particular syntactic relation among elements of two coordinate constituents. However, it has long been recognized that respectively need not relate members of two coordinate structures in the same sentence. For instance, Stockwell, Schachter, and Partee (1973, page 399) discuss the following example: (2) They live in New York and Chicago respectively. which is acceptable, for instance, in response to the question Where do John and Bill live? They state that such examples can only be used in a context in which it is known to what two people (or groups of people) they refers, and in what order those two people (or groups) are being referred to. McCawley (1988, page 536{540) also discusses example (2), suggesting that in such cases respectively may serve as an \anaphoric device", with a coordinate structure as antecedent in a preceding sentence. Pullum and Gazdar (1982, pages 481-485) discuss a strikingly similar example, although in a context that shows that McCawley's suggestion is insuucient. Their example, given in (3), is to be understood in a context where someone is attempting to pick out New York residents in a mass photo of the LSA membership: (3) The people you have indicated are all New York residents except for the last two. They live in Chicago and Columbus respectively.