The assertion arrow“grounds”the chain of referential dependence: it allows us to infer that the event took place. If
the event is conceptualized as having taken place, then its characters are conceptualized as existing. Without the
assertion arrow we still have referential dependence, but the chain of inference can't get started. Accordingly, we can
think of the assertion arrow as referentially licensing the event, which in turn referentially licenses its characters.
A proper name, of course, does not lose its existential claim when placed in a question:Joanis still identifiable inDid
Joan buy a car?We can notate this in the referential tier by licensingJoanwith its own“grounding”arrow, which comes
by virtuejoanbeing a proper name. The arrow is present whether the sentence is declarative or interrogative. (I
abbreviate even more severely in (37), conveniently omitting the descriptive tier.)
Something similar happens with anaphoric pronouns. In (38), the licensing of an existential claim foritcomes not
through a grounding arrow but through the anaphoric connection to something with its own existential claim:
We are now in a position to make an important observation(Jackendoff 1972; Csuri 1996; Roberts 1996). Consider
(39a) and the three alternative continuations in (39b, c, d).