co-referential (adj.)

A term used in LINGUISTICS, and especially in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, to refer to CONSTITUENTS in a SENTENCE that have the same REFERENCE. For example, in the sentence I said I would leave, the two SUBJECTS are co-referential; in He said he would go it is unclear whether co-referentiality applies, as the second he might refer to someone else. The distinction can be formulated using referentiality indices (CO-INDEXING), e.g. She_i said she_i would go (co-referential) v. She_i said she_j would go (‘non-co-referential’).