Idioms, argument ellipsis and LF-copy

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-278
Author(s):  
Yosuke Sato
Keyword(s):  
Argument Ellipsis

Quantificational Null Objects and Argument Ellipsis

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiko Takahashi
Keyword(s):  
Traditional View ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Null Objects

This article provides a new argument for the analysis of null arguments in terms of ellipsis by considering null objects that behave like quantifiers. It is shown that the presence of quantificational null objects and their scopal property are difficult to accommodate under the traditional view of null arguments as pronouns but are best accounted for by the ellipsis analysis. Among the consequences of the present study are the need to postulate phonetically invisible/inaudible scrambling and its obedience to the economy requirement.

scholarly journals Argument ellipsis in Colloquial Singapore English and the Anti-Agreement Hypothesis

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
YOSUKE SATO
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Argument Position ◽  
Comparative Syntax ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Principled Explanation ◽  
The Subject

This paper provides new data from Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) showing a hitherto unnoticed subject–object asymmetry: empty objects, but not empty subjects, exhibit sloppy/quantificational readings. According to a recent theory of argument ellipsis in Japanese/Korean (Oku 1998; S. Kim 1999; Takahashi 2007, 2008a, b, 2010), these readings obtain as a result of the LF-Copy of an overt argument from a full-fledged clause onto the corresponding empty argument position in an elliptical clause. Şener & Takahashi (2010) and Takahashi (2010) hypothesize that this operation is blocked by ϕ-agreement. This hypothesis provides a principled explanation for the subject–object asymmetry in CSE, coupled with the new observation that primary substrates of CSE – Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Malay – exhibit the same asymmetry as CSE. My analysis has significant implications for the comparative syntax of argument ellipsis and for theories of contact genesis. Among others, the analysis supports the claim (Miyagawa 2010) that Chinese possesses ϕ-agreement despite the lack of morphological manifestations. The results in this paper also provide strong evidence for the general substratist explanation on the emerging grammar of CSE (Bao 2005).

Constraints on ellipsis alternation: A view from the history of English

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Nykiel
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Form Processing ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
History Of ◽  
Construction Type ◽  
Semantic Dependencies ◽  
Late Modern

AbstractI offer a diachronic perspective on English ellipsis alternation, or the alternation between inclusion and omission of prepositions from remnants under sluicing and bare argument ellipsis. The relative freedom to omit prepositions from remnants has not been stable in English; this freedom is connected to the strength of semantic dependencies between prepositions and verbs. Remnants without prepositions are first attested, but remain less frequent than remnants with prepositions, as late as Early Modern English and gain in frequency following this period. I demonstrate that three constraints—correlate informativity, structural persistence, and construction type—predict ellipsis alternation in Early and Late Modern English. However, predicting ellipsis alternation in present-day English requires semantic dependencies in addition to the three constraints. The constraints can be subsumed under principles of language processing and production (considerations of accessibility, a tendency to reuse structure, and a conventionalized performance preference for efficiently accessing constituents that form processing domains), permitting a unified processing account of ellipsis alternation with cross-linguistic coverage.

Bare Argument Ellipsis and its Relatives

2005 ◽  
pp. 233-282
Author(s):  
Peter W. Culicover ◽  
Ray Jackendoff
Keyword(s):  
Argument Ellipsis

Argument Ellipsis and Scope Economy in Japanese

Syntax ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-437
Author(s):  
Masako Maeda
Keyword(s):  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Scope Economy

On the Nonexistence of Verb-Stranding VP-Ellipsis

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Idan Landau
Keyword(s):  
Head Movement ◽  
Simple Argument ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Vp Ellipsis

An increasingly popular analysis of object gap sentences in many languages derives them in two steps: (a) V-raising out of VP, and (b) VP-ellipsis of the remnant, stranding the verb (V-stranding VP-ellipsis, VSVPE). For Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, and Portuguese, I show this analysis to be inadequate. First, it undergenerates elliptical objects in various environments, and second, it overgenerates nonexisting adjunct-including readings. For all the problematic data, simple argument ellipsis provides a unified explanation. The absence of VSVPE in languages that do allow V-raising and Aux-stranding VP-ellipsis raises an intriguing problem for theories addressing the interaction of head movement and ellipsis.

What could have sanctioned null subjects in Old English?

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-180
Author(s):  
Kristian A. Rusten
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Empirical Validity ◽  
Argument Ellipsis

Chapter 5 investigates the question of what could have sanctioned null subjects in Old English. It tests the empirical validity for the Old English data of central syntactic models attempting to account for the appearance of null subjects. It is shown that the predictions made by these analyses are not borne out in Old English, and it is argued that analysing the omitted subjects in terms of ellipsis is more fruitful than construing them as an active canonical or partial pro-drop grammar. The stance is taken that referential null subjects do not represent a productive grammatical feature of Old English, and it is again noted that the occurrence could instead be considered linguistic ‘residue’. Such an analysis would not be at odds with work which analyses pro-drop as argument ellipsis cross-linguistically.

Wh-gap Binding and Ellipsis — a Grammar for an Input System

1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Kempson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
New Model ◽  
Input System ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Syntactic Constraints ◽  
Anaphoric Dependency

This paper argues that pragmatic processes and syntactic constraints interact, that we can nevertheless retain the assumption that the natural language faculty is fully encapsulated, and that the problems posed by the phenomenon of gapping (bare argument ellipsis) can be resolved by analysing gapping as an instance of such interaction. A new model of language is sketched out, a model which is a formal reconstruction of assumptions about the language faculty and its relation to central cognitive processes made by Fodor. and Sperber and Wilson. A fragment is defined to cover pronominal anaphoric dependency and quantifier binding, and a new analysis of bare argument ellipsis (gapping) is presented.

Argument ellipsis and the licensing of covert nominals in Bangla, Hindi and Malayalam

Lingua ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 103-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Simpson ◽  
Arunima Choudhury ◽  
Mythili Menon
Keyword(s):  
Argument Ellipsis
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