On “null operator” constructions

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaru Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
Null Operator

scholarly journals Tough-Constructions and Their Derivation

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glyn Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
Principles And Parameters

This article addresses the syntax of the notorious tough(-movement) construction (TC) in English. TCs exhibit a range of apparently contradictory empirical properties suggesting that their derivation involves the application of both A-movement and Ā-movement operations. Within previous principles-and-parameters models, TCs have remained “unexplained and in principle unexplainable” (Holmberg 2000:839) because of incompatibility with constraints on θ-role assignment, locality, and Case. This article argues that the phase-based implementation of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2004) permits a reanalysis of null wh-operators capable of circumventing the previous theoretical difficulties. Essentially, tough-movement consists of A-moving a constituent out of a “complex” null operator that has already undergone Ā-movement, a “smuggling” construction in the terms proposed by Collins (2005a,b).

Spelling-Out Scrambling

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 109-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Fukui ◽  
Hironobu Kasai
Keyword(s):  
Natural Consequence ◽  
Syntactic Movement ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Null Operator Movement ◽  
Reconstruction Effects ◽  
Radical Reconstruction ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Operator Movement

This paper offers a new analysis of Japanese scrambling, under which some instances of scrambling phenomena are derived from the process of linearization. It is specifically proposed that the absence of formal agreement in Japanese enables Spell-Out to apply solely to an argument of the verb. The spelled out argument is “dislocated” at PF by the mechanisms of linearization of spelled out syntactic objects. Radical reconstruction effects, along with various other properties of Japanese scrambling such as the proper binding effects, are captured as a natural consequence of the proposed analysis, because the scrambled constituent actually does not undergo any syntactic movement but rather stays in the base-generated position. It is also argued that an analysis of scrambling ought to be eclectic in the sense that another strategy, which employs null operator movement to establish the relation between the dislocated element and the gap, is also available in Japanese, as originally proposed by Ueyama (2002). Thus, the optionality of Japanese scrambling is shifted under the proposed analysis to the optional application of Spell-Out (made possible by the absence of formal agreement) and the optional selection of a null operator in the numeration. The paper is concluded with the speculation that the availability of the latter strategy is due to the rich use of predication in Japanese.

scholarly journals A roadmap for bootstrapping critical gauge theories: decoupling operators of conformal field theories in $d>2$ dimensions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin-Chen He ◽  
Junchen Rong ◽  
Ning Su
Keyword(s):  
Gauge Group ◽  
Gauge Theories ◽  
Higher Dimensions ◽  
Equation Of Motion ◽  
Field Theories ◽  
Conformal Field Theories ◽  
Gauge Groups ◽  
Conformal Field ◽  
Conformal Bootstrap ◽  
Null Operator

We propose a roadmap for bootstrapping conformal field theories (CFTs) described by gauge theories in dimensions d>2d>2. In particular, we provide a simple and workable answer to the question of how to detect the gauge group in the bootstrap calculation. Our recipe is based on the notion of decoupling operator, which has a simple (gauge) group theoretical origin, and is reminiscent of the null operator of 2d2d Wess-Zumino-Witten CFTs in higher dimensions. Using the decoupling operator we can efficiently detect the rank (i.e. color number) of gauge groups, e.g., by imposing gap conditions in the CFT spectrum. We also discuss the physics of the equation of motion, which has interesting consequences in the CFT spectrum as well. As an application of our recipes, we study a prototypical critical gauge theory, namely the scalar QED which has a U(1)U(1) gauge field interacting with critical bosons. We show that the scalar QED can be solved by conformal bootstrap, namely we have obtained its kinks and islands in both d=3d=3 and d=2+\epsilond=2+ϵ dimensions.

The Limiting Transition in Integro-Differential Equations Containing a Null Operator in the Differential Part and Several Rapidly Varying Kernels

Vestnik MEI ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-142
Author(s):  
Mashkhura A. Bobodzhanova ◽  
◽  
Valeriy F. Safonov ◽  
Olim D. Tuychiev ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Differential Equations ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
Differential Part

Relative nominals and event nominals in Hiaki

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-230
Author(s):  
Heidi Harley
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Event Argument ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
Null Operator Movement ◽  
Operator Movement

In ‘Relative nominals and event nominals in Hiaki’, Harley discusses an interesting formal overlap between nominalizations which create relative-clause like structures and nominalizations which create event nominals in Hiaki (Yaqui). The nominalizer which usually derives a subject relative nominal, when applied to an argumentless predicate such as a weather verb or an impersonal passive, also derives an event nominal. Harley argues that this is because the event argument IS the ‘subject’ of an argumentless predicate, the only accessible argument for the nominalizer to reify. In the process of proposing a uniform semantics for the relative nominalizers and the event nominalizer, a detailed analysis of both is provided. The nominalizers are argued to select an AspP complement. In entity-referring relative nominals, null operator movement is involved; in the event-referring event nominals, no operator is needed or possible. The syntax and morphology of the relative nominalizers is worked out in detail, with particular attention to the genitive-marked subjects of object, oblique, and locative relative nominals. <163>

scholarly journals The Middle Construction in Minimalist Syntax: English and Slovenian

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-61
Author(s):  
Jakob Lenardič
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Active Voice ◽  
Recent Approach ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
English Middle Construction ◽  
Minimalist Syntax

The paper discusses the argument structure of the English middle construction and its Slovenian equivalent from the perspective of minimalist syntax. The paper first introduces Bruening’s (2012) recent approach to syntactic middle formation, which posits that middle sentences are derived via an operator that existentially quantifies over the open agent variable introduced by an active Voice projection. Subsequently, the paper argues that the adverbial modifier in the middle construction is not a semantic argument of the null operator, contra Bruening (2012). Finally, the paper proposes that the reflexive morpheme se in the related Slovenian se-sentences plays a role of valency reduction similar to that of the null English operator.

scholarly journals Voice morphology, case, and argument structure in Malagasy

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 229-243
Author(s):  
Matt Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Head Movement ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Light Verbs ◽  
Special Morphology ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Case Licensing ◽  
The Voice

[V]oice in Malagasy is less like voice in English and more like wh-agreement, of the sort which Chung (1998) documents for Chamorro. In A' -extraction contexts in Chamorro, regular subject agreement […] is replaced by special morphology indicating whether the extracted element is a subject, object, or oblique […]. In Pearson (to appear) I suggested that Malagasy voice marking is a 'generalized' version of this type of marking: While in Chamorro wh-agreement is confined to questions, relative clauses, and the like, in Malagasy it appears in all clause types due to a requirement that the specifier of WhP be filled in every clause. [...] In this paper I focus on the voice affixes themselves and propose an account of their distribution. Specifically, I argue that they are realizations of light verbs and Case-checking heads, which combine with the root through head-to-head movement. The distribution of the affixes is determined by the positions from which, and through which, the null operator […] moves on its way to the specifier of WhP. For example, the actor-topic prefix m- is treated as a nominative Casechecking head, which gets spelled out just in case the operator raises through its specifier. (My analysis is thus in the spirit of Guilfoyle, Hung, & Travis (1992), who also associate voice morphemes with Case licensing.)  

scholarly journals How relative are purpose relative clauses?

Probus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inês Duarte ◽  
Ana Lúcia Santos ◽  
Nélia Alexandre
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
Purpose Clauses ◽  
Gap Effects

AbstractIn this paper, we present extended argumentation against a raising analysis for every type of relative clauses. Specifically, we argue that purpose relative clauses involve raising of a null operator to Spec,CP, contrary toAfter showing that all purpose relatives in European Portuguese are CPs, we present several arguments in favor of a null operator analysis of this type of structure. First, we show that parasitic gap effects support the existence of a variable in object purpose relatives and in VP adjunct purpose clauses with an object gap. We then show that Principle A effects in object purpose relatives allow to distinguish this type of relatives from

On null operator structures

1993 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heles Contreras
Keyword(s):  
Null Operator

scholarly journals Clivadas sem operador no português brasileiro (Clefts without an operator in Brazilian Portuguese)

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Kato
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Remnant Movement ◽  
Caribbean Spanish ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Independent Derivation

O português apresenta um tipo de sentença que tem sido tradicionalmente analisado como uma pseudo-clivada reduzida, as semi-clivadas, obtidas através do apagamento do operador-Q. Construcões semelhantes são também encontradas no Espanhol Caribenho (EsC) e analisadas como tendo um Operador nulo. Percebendo que nem todas as pseudo-clivadas têm uma reduzida correspondente, Bosque (1999) e Camacho (2006), tratando do EsC, e Mioto (2008), tratando do português brasileiro (PB), propoÃÉem uma derivação independente para as semi-clivadas. O presente trabalho se constitui numa tentativa diferente de explicar as semi-clivadas, independentemente das pseudo-clivadas, para dar conta de construções não permitidas em EsC. A diferença proposta é que, enquanto nas pseudo- clivadas o foco é o argumento, o adjunto ou o VP, nas semi- clivadas o foco é o resíduo de VP (depois da subida do verbo) ou Adverbiais adjuntos a VP.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Construções de Foco Estreito e Contrastivo. Espanhol Caribenho. Movimento Residual. Português Brasileiro.ABSTRACT Portuguese exhibits a type of sentence which has been traditionally analyzed as the reduction of a pseudo-cleft, built up through the deletion/ erasure of the wh-operator. Similar constructions are also found in the Caribbean dialects of Spanish (CS) and analyzed as containing a null Operator. Realizing that not all pseudo-clefts with an overt wh-operator have a corresponding reduced cleft, or semi-cleft, Bosque (1999) and Camacho (2006), for CS, and Mioto (2008), for Brazilian Portuguese, propose an independent derivation for semi-clefts. This paper is another attempt at deriving reduced or semi-clefts independently of pseudo-clefts, an analysis that can account for constructions found out in BP, which are inexistent in CS. I claim that, while pseudo-clefts focalize arguments, VP or adjuncts, reduced clefts focalize only remnant VPs and VP-adjuncts.KEYWORDS: Narrow and Contrastive Focus Construction. Caribbean Spanish. Remnant Movement. Brazilian Portuguese.  

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