Null Objects in Korean: Experimental Evidence for the Argument Ellipsis Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-340
Author(s):  
Chung-hye Han ◽  
Kyeong-min Kim ◽  
Keir Moulton ◽  
Jeffrey Lidz
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Correlation Experiment ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Null Object ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Verb Raising

Null object (NO) constructions in Korean and Japanese have received different accounts: as (a) argument ellipsis ( Oku 1998 , S. Kim 1999 , Saito 2007 , Sakamoto 2015 ), (b) VP-ellipsis after verb raising ( Otani and Whitman 1991 , Funakoshi 2016 ), or (c) instances of base-generated pro ( Park 1997 , Hoji 1998 , 2003 ). We report results from two experiments supporting the argument ellipsis analysis for Korean. Experiment 1 builds on K.-M. Kim and Han’s (2016) finding of interspeaker variation in whether the pronoun ku can be bound by a quantifier. Results showed that a speaker’s acceptance of quantifier-bound ku positively correlates with acceptance of sloppy readings in NO sentences. We argue that an ellipsis account, in which the NO site contains internal structure hosting the pronoun, accounts for this correlation. Experiment 2, testing the recovery of adverbials in NO sentences, showed that only the object (not the adverb) can be recovered in the NO site, excluding the possibility of VP-ellipsis. Taken together, our findings suggest that NOs result from argument ellipsis in Korean.

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.

On the development of null implicit objects in L1 English

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana T. Pérez-Leroux ◽  
Mihaela Pirvulescu ◽  
Yves Roberge ◽  
Anny Castilla
Keyword(s):  
Sole Source ◽  
Incomplete Knowledge ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Null Object ◽  
Object Construction ◽  
Production Study ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Verb Meaning ◽  
L1 Acquisition ◽  
L1 English

AbstractThis article explores a defining property of implicit null object constructions, and how this property emerges during the L1 acquisition process. Implicit objects are non-referential and characterized by a strong semantic association between a null N in object position and the contents of the verb root. By means of an elicited production study, we examine children’s sensitivity to this association in terms of the typicality of implicit direct objects and of their use in a potentially contrastive context. Participants were 73 English-speaking children (between the ages of 2;09 and 5;08) and 20 adult controls. Our results show that children make a distinction between implicit objects with typical and atypical objects—even in scenarios where a previous use introduces a potential contrast—but at rates that differ from those of adults. This suggests an incomplete knowledge of the target properties of null objects and indicates that children use a referential null N until later in development, when the selectional link between V and the null object becomes entrenched and hyponymy with the verb root becomes the sole source of recoverability. We draw implications about the co-development of verb meaning and the null object construction.

ASYMMETRY OF NULL SUBJECTS AND NULL OBJECTS IN CHINESE SPEAKERS' L2 ENGLISH

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boping Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Null Subjects ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Null Object ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
L1 Acquisition ◽  
Chinese And English

One of the differences between Chinese and English is that the former allows both null subjects in finite sentences and null objects, but the latter allows neither. This cross-linguistic variation is believed to be related to the underspecification of I and topic drop in Chinese but not in English. This paper reports on an empirical study investigating the unlearning of null subjects and null objects by 159 Chinese learners in their L2 acquisition of English. In L1 acquisition, it has been found that English-speaking children display an asymmetry by frequently allowing null subjects but rarely null objects. The results of this study indicate that there is an asymmetry in Chinese learners' L2 English, which, however, is opposite to that found in English L1 acquisition: Chinese learners are able to reject the incorrect null subject in English, but unable to detect the ungrammaticality of the null object. It is proposed that the unlearning of null subjects by Chinese learners of English is triggered by the evidence in their input indicating the specification of AGR(eement) and T(ense) in English, and that the difficulty in the unlearning of null objects is related to the lack of informative evidence to unset the [+ topic-drop] setting in Chinese learners' L2 English.

Generative Approaches

2019 ◽  
pp. 152-179
Author(s):  
Terje Lohndal ◽  
Liliane Haegeman
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Theory Construction ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Structural Relation ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Characteristic Theory ◽  
Abstract Structure

This chapter provides an introduction to syntax from a generative perspective. Due to space constraints, the chapter zooms in on mainstream derivational (‘transformational’) approaches, essentially along the lines developed by Chomsky and many others. The chapter highlights the long-standing and constant ingredients of the mainstream theory, and it does so by emphasizing and illustrating the characteristic theory-driven deductive argumentation. After introducing and motivating hierarchical structure and the structural relation c-command, the chapter explores the concept of abstract structure by studying long-distance dependencies. In particular, it is shown how copies left by moved constituents play a role in interpretive processes. Furthermore, a case study of VP ellipsis provides arguments that although the ellipsis site is not associated with any overt material, it nevertheless has internal structure. In sum, the chapter seeks to illuminate the nature of the interplay between data and theory construction within generative approaches.

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.

scholarly journals Null objects in the spontaneous speech of monolingual and bilingual speakers of European Portuguese

Probus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Rinke ◽  
Cristina Flores ◽  
Pilar Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Null Object ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Spontaneous Production ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
First Generation Migrants ◽  
Semantic Properties

AbstractThis paper investigates object omissions in the spontaneous production of European Portuguese by second-generation Portuguese-German bilingual speakers and compares them to first-generation migrants, and two age-matched groups of monolingual speakers. The results show that bilingual speakers as well as the younger generation of monolinguals show a higher number of null objects in their speech than the two older generations. This may reflect an inter-generational development that favours null objects, which is independent of language contact. The analysis of the syntactic and semantic conditions determining the occurrence of null objects in the speech of the different groups reveals that the semantic properties of the null objects realized by the bilinguals, particularly the higher rates of animate and non-propositional null objects, show that they extend the semantic-pragmatic conditions of null object realization along a referential hierarchy. The bilingual speakers may reflect a language-internal pathway that appears to resemble a diachronic change observed in BP.

On null objects in Egyptian Arabic

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-259
Author(s):  
Usama Soltan
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Egyptian Arabic ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
Case Licensing ◽  
Strict Identity

Abstract This paper provides a descriptive account and a syntactic analysis of the grammatical distribution and properties of null objects (NOs) in Egyptian Arabic. In particular, it is shown that NOs cannot be analyzed as instances of null pro or as variables bound by a null topic operator. A Verb-Stranding VP-Ellipsis account is also shown to be empirically non-viable. Instead, I argue that NOs result from Argument Ellipsis (AE), an operation that targets arguments for deletion at PF. This AE analysis has several empirical advantages, including an account for (a) the different-entity interpretation of NOs, (b) the fact that PP and CP internal arguments can be null, (c) the availability of both strict identity and sloppy identity readings with null PPs and CPs, (d) the indefiniteness and inanimacy restrictions on the antecedents of NOs, and (e) the fact that subjects, as opposed to objects, cannot undergo AE. Following existing proposals in the generative literature on null arguments, I provide a minimalist implementation of the AE operation, whereby principles of φ-agreement, case licensing, the NP/DP distinction, and a notion of relativized phasehood, all conspire to determine when NOs occur and when they are disallowed in the language.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document