Abstract This paper aims at showing that long-distance binding can be reduced to logophoric exemption from Condition A based on the case study of French soi. Soi is usually treated as a long-distance anaphor similar to Icelandic sig. But once the relevant factors are disentangled, it turns out that soi is a standard anaphor that must be locally bound unless the relevant logophoric conditions are met, which exempt soi from binding requirements. First, soi is a first-person oriented generic, expressing a generalization based on the discourse participants’ identification with the antecedent. Second, this determines its logophoric conditions of exemption (speaker-orientedness): soi is exempt from Condition A when its antecedent includes the speaker and is the perspective center of its clause.