Does ellipsis repair Head Movement constraint violations?

Using English data, I show that Head Movement Constraint violations cannot be repaired by deletion and compare this result with cases of salvation and non-salvation by ellipsis from previous literature. I then consider two possible sources for this lack of repair. The first is to take the Head Movement Constraint as a derivational constraint, and the second is to assimilate it into the Empty Category Principle (Chomsky 1986).

The linguistic lacunicon: cognitive mapping in schemes and terms

The new linguistic science lacunology has come into prominence recently. The lacunae studies embrace sociolinguistics, nonverbal semiotics and applied linguistics studies. The re-search of terms of lacunology (lacunicon) is devoted to empty places in the structure of the contrasting languages and the ways of zero verbalization in the written and oral discourse. The empty category of the category “lacunarity” has been studied by the Canadian transla-tors Jean Paul Vinay (1910-1999) and Jean Darbelnet (1904-1990), the Russian pioneers of lacu-nology Yuriy Sorokin (1936-2009) and Gulchera Bikova and their followers. The research has resulted in the cognitive mind mapping. It turned out that lacunarity has several vectors, e.g. lacunae of language (i), lacunae of speech (ii), lacunae of cognition (iii) to be further discussed in the article. The basic terms of lacunicon are described. These are a pause in syntagmatics, a linguistic gap in paradigmatics, a lacuna in both diachronic and synchronic regimes.

EMPTY CATEGORIES IN TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES

There are three theories that are always developed in any study of language, namely theory of language structure, theory of language acquisition, and theory of language use. Among those three theories, theory of language structure is regarded as the most important one. It is assumed that if someone knows the structure of language, he/she can develop theories about how language is acquired and used. It makes Chomsky interested in developing the theory of language structure. Chomsky introduced a theory of grammar called Transformational Generative Grammar or Transformational Syntax. Transformational Syntax is a method of sentence fomation which applies some syntactic rules (or also called transformational rules). Transformational rules consist of three types, namely movement transformation, deletion transformation, and substitution transformation. When those transformational rules are applied in a sentence, they will leave empty categories. Empty categories can be in the form of Complementizer (Comp), Trace, and PRO. This article will elaborate those empty categories; their appearance in the transformational rules; and the characteristics of each empty category.

Empty category in Persian relative clauses

Empty categories are one of the fundamental parts of generativist’s view towards language. Empty operators, the so-called null elements, which are syntactically active in relative clauses and possibly move into [spec, CP], have reportedly been found in different languages. However, there is no solid evidence for the existence of empty operators in Persian relative clauses. Despite this, syntactic evidences such as theta theory, argument structure and subjacency condition provide satisfactory provable tests in favor of their role in Persian grammar. Namely, Persian relative clauses contain resumptive pronouns which may be covert. Their movement into [spec, CP] can precisely account for subjacency effect in relative clauses. Resumptive pronouns can occupy the subject as well as the object position. This articles attempts to introduce empty operators to Persian syntax, and shows that in such a way it is possible to account for the peculiar behavior of the Persian complementizer “ke” and its obligatory nature.

PF deletion within Chinese DPs

The aim of this paper is to study the empty categories which may exist inside the Chinese DP domain. The primary discussion concerns an empty category which results from the deletion of NP. This paper introduces a novel observation that equation sentences with a “Modifier- Empty-NP” object can only result from ellipsis, and cannot be a base-generated pro-Form in Mandarin Chinese. I further show that the rich array of functional elements and modifications in the internal structure of the Chinese DP can aid linguists in ascertaining the domain over which deletion happens.

The Adequacy of Empty Category in the Theory of Syntax

This article provides syntactic arguments and evidence which describe the significant functions of empty categories in the theory of Generative Transformational Syntax. The descriptions indicate that four empty caries postulated in the theory do solve a number of syntactic properties. It means that the theory of Generative Transformational Syntax has satisfied its principle that it has the characteristics of descriptive adequacy and explanatory adequacy.