Comparative Syntax of Argument Ellipsis in Languages without Agreement
Yosuke Sato
April 2018 

This paper investigates the cross-linguistic distribution of argument ellipsis (AE) with an emphasis on Japanese and Chinese, two well-known languages without agreement. It is observed in the literature that Japanese permits AE in both null subject and null object positions whereas Chinese permits it in null object positions, but not in null subject positions. Adopting Saito’s (2007) hypothesis that the presence of φ-feature agreement associated with v or T blocks AE, Miyagawa (2013) and Takahashi (2014) argue that the absence of subject AE in Chinese follows from abstract subject agreement. After presenting arguments against this analysis, I propose that the distribution of AE is better predicted by topichood and implement this proposal in Saito’s (2015) recent analysis whereby AE, analyzed as LF-Copy, cannot apply to an operator-variable configuration. My analysis is supported by the novel observation that the null subject position in Chinese actually allows AE when it is not linked to the topic position, as in hanging topics, relative clauses and adverbial clauses. I conclude by briefly exploring some theoretical consequences of my analysis for the contemporary debate between PF-deletion and LF-copy theories of ellipsis, scope assignment, and the acquisition of the distribution of AE.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/003976 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	accepted for publication (Journal of Linguistics)
keywords:	argument ellipsis, lf-copy, φ-feature agreement, topic, operator-variable relation, semantics, syntax
Downloaded:	525 times

 

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