Overtly Empty but Covertly Complex

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-136
Author(s):  
Yuta Sakamoto
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Deep Anaphora ◽  
Proper Analysis

In this article, I argue for an ellipsis analysis of Japanese null arguments on the basis of a novel observation that covert extraction (i.e., extraction that does not affect word order) is possible out of them. Specifically, assuming that the extraction possibility is a diagnostic for surface anaphora/ellipsis, I claim that the covert extraction possibility indicates that Japanese null arguments can be elliptic: they cannot be uniformly silent deep anaphora/proforms. Furthermore, I show that there is an overt/covert extraction asymmetry in that only covert extraction is allowed out of Japanese null arguments. I argue that the LF copy analysis of argument ellipsis provides a solution for the overt/covert extraction asymmetry. The discussion also has consequences for the proper analysis of several phenomena of Japanese syntax, including wh-in-situ.

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.

Polysynthesis in Ainu

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Bugaeva
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Heavy Element ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Noun Incorporation ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Single Complex ◽  
General Object

Ainu is a typical polysynthetic language in that a single complex verb can express what takes a whole sentence in most other languages. A single verb form may include more than one heavy element: up to two applicative prefixes (out of three), two causative suffixes (out of five), two incorporated objects, one lexical prefix (out of two originating in nouns ‘head’ and ‘bottom’), one verbalizing suffix (originating in the verb ‘make’), as well as reciprocal, reflexive, and general object (=antipassive) prefixes and agreement affixes for the first/second person subject and object. The degree of combinability of voice markers and noun incorporation is spectacular. Nevertheless, it has been claimed that Ainu deviates from more typical polysynthetic languages in having less freedom of word order, interrogative phrases in situ, and unrestricted morphological causatives (Baker 1996). This chapter aims to distinguish what Ainu shares with other polysynthetic languages from what is unique.

Turkish and the Southwestern Turkic (Oghuz) languages

2020 ◽  
pp. 392-410
Author(s):  
Jaklin Kornfilt
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
Embedded Clauses ◽  
Modern Standard

The Southwestern (Oghuz) branch of Turkic consists of languages that are largely mutually intelligible, and are similar with respect to their structural properties. Because Turkish is the most prominent member of this branch with respect to number of speakers, and because it is the best-studied language in this group, this chapter describes modern standard Turkish as the representative of that branch and limits itself to describing Turkish. The morphology of Oghuz languages is agglutinative and suffixing; their phonology has vowel harmony for the features of backness and rounding; their basic word order is SOV, but most are quite free in their word order and are wh-in-situ languages; their relative clauses exhibit gaps corresponding to the clause-external head, and most embedded clauses are nominalized. Fully verbal embedded clauses are found, too. The lexicon, while largely Turkic, also has borrowings from Arabic, Persian, French, English, and Modern Greek and Italian.

Obligatory Overt Wh-Movement in a Wh-in-Situ Language

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Simpson ◽  
Tanmoy Bhattacharya
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Simple Explanation ◽  
Complement Clauses

Bangla has commonly been assumed to be an SOV wh-in-situ language. Here it is suggested that both of these characterizations are incorrect and that Bangla actually has obligatory overt wh-movement from a basic SVO word order. This is disguised by a conspiracy of factors but revealed in restrictions on wh-scope and certain apparently optional word order possibilities with complement clauses. Adopting a different perspective on the SOV status of Bangla allows for a simple explanation of the patterns observed and raises the possibility that other “wh-in-situ” languages may also have (obligatory) overt wh-movement.

TESTING THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE HYPOTHESIS

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyang Suk Song ◽  
Bonnie D. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
First Language ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Fundamental Difference ◽  
Korean Children ◽  
Polarity Items ◽  
English Child ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 English

The fundamental difference hypothesis (FDH; Bley-Vroman, 1989, 1990) contends that the nature of language in natives is fundamentally different from the nature of language in adult nonnatives. This study tests the FDH in two ways: (a) via second language (L2) poverty-of-the-stimulus (POS) problems (e.g., Schwartz & Sprouse, 2000) and (b) via a comparison between adult and child L2 learners, whose first language (L1) is the same, in terms of their developmental route (e.g., Schwartz, 1992, 2003). The phenomena under investigation are Korean wh-constructions with negative polarity items (NPIs). Korean has subject (S)-object (O)-verb (V) as its canonical word order and it is also a wh-in-situ language, but scrambling of the object to presubject position (i.e., movement that results in OSV word order) is generally optional; however, in the context of negative questions with a NPI subject (e.g., amwuto “anyone”), (a) object wh-phrases must scramble on the wh-question reading and (b) the nonscrambled order has a yes/no-question reading. These properties of Korean wh-constructions with NPIs constitute POS problems for nonnatives whose L1 is English (as well as for native Korean-acquiring children). L1-English adult L2 learners (n = 15) and L1-English child L2 learners (n = 10), independently assessed for Korean proficiency, as well as L1-Korean children (n = 23) and L1-Korean adults (n = 15) completed an elicited-production task, an acceptability-judgment task, and an interpretation-verification task. The results show that (a) high-proficiency (adult and child) L2 learners performed like the native adult controls on all three tasks, thereby demonstrating L2 POS effects; and (b) adult and child L2 learners follow the same (inferred) route to convergence, a route differing from—yet subsuming—the L1-child route. Both sets of results lead us to conclude that, contra the FDH, the nature of language is fundamentally similar in natives and (adult or child) nonnatives.

scholarly journals Null Arguments and Wh-in-situ

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-572
Author(s):  
Gui-Sun Moon
Keyword(s):  
Null Arguments

Changing EPP parameters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieven Danckaert
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
The Core ◽  
History Of ◽  
Parametric Change ◽  
T Domain ◽  
The Way

This chapter starts with a description of the core facts concerning the VPAux/AuxVP alternation in the history of Latin. In the case of modal verbs and infinitives, there is a clear decline of the head-final order VPAux, whereas Late Latin BE-periphrases surprisingly prefer this order. Against the backdrop of these observations, the discussion then turns to the analysis of Classical and Late Latin clause structure. It is proposed that during the transition from Classical to Late Latin, a major parametric change took place related to the way the clausal EPP-requirement is satisfied. In the earlier grammar (‘Grammar A’), the entire VP undergoes A-movement to the high T-domain, resulting in the characteristic VPAux word order. In the later grammar (‘Grammar B’) the EPP-requirement is met by means of verb movement, with the VP staying in situ. In this grammar VPAux-orders are derived through roll-up movement, which is incompatible with the VOAux-pattern.

The Syntax of Arabic From A Generative Perspective

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elabbas Benmamoun ◽  
Lina Choueiri
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Generative Linguistics ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Linguistic Categories

Research on Arabic varieties within modern syntactic approaches has tracked the debates that have preoccupied the field of generative linguistics in its different incarnations throughout the last six decades. The debates centered on the nature of linguistic categories, syntactic configurations and their constituents, syntactic alternations and processes that alter the order of constituents, and dependencies between members of the syntactic representations. This article considers the main issues within Arabic syntax and the influential approaches that have been advanced. It focuses on debates surrounding phrase structure and word order, the syntax of the noun phrase, subjects and subject agreement, negation, long A’-dependencies, and wh-in situ constructions.

Japanese

2018 ◽  
pp. 864-899
Author(s):  
Teruhiko Fukaya
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Deletion Analysis ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Right Node Raising ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Presence And Absence ◽  
Deep Anaphora ◽  
String Deletion

This chapter provides an overview of, while examining various proposals for, ellipsis in Japanese. Fragments are examined, and it is claimed to be reasonable to assume that stripping, sluicing, and ellipsis in comparatives are a uniform phenomenon while short answers are distinct. It is also argued that the properties of Right-Node Raising can be best captured by a non-constituent string deletion analysis. Three approaches to null arguments are examined, and shortcomings in each are discussed. N’-deletion is then explored and claimed to be ambiguous between two structural possibilities: ellipsis and non-ellipsis. VP-ellipsis, gapping, and pseudo-gapping are also touched upon. One significant aspect of the ellipsis phenomena in Japanese illustrated in this chapter is that the presence and absence of a case-marker plays a crucial role, with case-marked and non-case-marked fragments being analyzed as instances of surface anaphora and deep anaphora, respectively. This indicates the importance of focusing on case-marked versions in the syntactic investigation of these phenomena.

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