Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T13:24:03.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Missing objects in special registers: The syntax of null objects in English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2016

Marta Ruda
Marta Ruda*
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Even though null definite objects are usually ungrammatical in English, they are widely used in certain special registers. This paper investigates object drop in the recipe and, to a lesser extent, match broadcasting registers in English, contributing an analysis of a substantial set of naturally occuring data, hence making it possible to verify observations from previous syntactic studies of the phenomenon, which were based on a restricted array of isolated sentences. Having shown that the data support the assumption that the unrealised object is syntactically active, I propose a novel analysis of missing objects in special registers, guided by recent developments in the generative linguistic theory. Null realisation of the object is considered as an issue of externalisation and intralinguistic variation is attributed to the rules operating at the SM interface which make it possible to extend the application of copy deletion, as assumed within the copy theory of movement

Résumé

Résumé

Bien que les objets nuls dermis sont habituellement agrammaticaux en anglais, ils sont néanmoins couramment utilisés dans certains registres. Le but de cet article est d'analyser les objets nuls dans les recettes de cuisine, et d'une moindre mesure, dans les matchs retransmis dans les médias en anglais. Nos données sont done des données naturelles, ce qui nous permettra de vérifier dans un contexte naturel certaines observations faites dans la littérature syntaxique, qui étaient auparavant toujours des cas dans des phrases isolées. Après avoir montré que les objets nuls en question sont actifs syntaxiquement, je proposerai une nouvelle analyse selon laquelle la possibilité des objets nuls est une question d'externalisation et que la variation intralinguistique est due à des régies operant au niveau de 1'interface syntaxe-phonologie, une analyse qui rend possible l'extension de l'analyse de la suppression des copies dans la grammaire.

Keywords

null objectscopy deletioncomputational efficiencyminimalist syntaxrecipe and match broadcasting registersobjets nulssuppression des copiesefficacité computationnellesyntaxe minimalisteregistres des recettes de cuisine et des matchs diffusés dans les médias
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , November 2014 , pp. 339 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association. 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexiadou, Artemis and Anagnostopoulou, Elena. 1998. Parameterizing AGR: Word order, V-movement and EPP-checking. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16: 491–539.Google Scholar
Allerton, David J. 1975. Deletion and proform reduction. Journal of Linguistics 11: 213–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aoun, Joseph and Audrey Li, Yen-hui. 2008. Ellipsis and missing objects. In Foundational issues in linguistic theory: Essays in honor of Jean-Roger Vergnaud, ed. Freidin, Robert, Otero, Carlos P., and Zubizarreta, Maria Luisa, 251–273. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Avrutin, Sergey. 2006. Weak syntax. In Broca's region, ed. Grodzinsky, Yosef and Amunts, Katrin, 49–62. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barbosa, Pilar. 1995. Null subjects. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyGoogle Scholar
Barbosa, Pilar. 2013. Pro as a minimal NP: Towards a unified approach to pro-drop. Ms., Universidade Do Minho. Available at: ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/001949.Google Scholar
Bender, Emily. 1999. Constituting context: Null objects in English recipes revisited. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 6: 53–68.Google Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina and Frascarelli, Mara. 2009. Is topic a root phenomenon? Paper presented at the Conference on Root Phenomena, ZAS Berlin. Available at: ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/ 000954.Google Scholar
Biberauer, Theresa and Roberts, Ian. 2012. Towards a parameter hierarchy for auxiliaries: Diachronic considerations. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics 6: 267–294.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2012. On NPs and clauses. In Discourse and grammar: From sentence types to lexical categories, ed. Grewendorf, Guntherand Zimmermann, Thomas Ede, 179–242. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998. Reference to kinds across languages. Natural Language Semantics 6: 339-05.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Ken Hale: A life in language, ed. Kenstowicz, Michael J., 1–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo and Rizzi, Luigi. 2010. The cartography of syntactic structures. In The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis, ed. Heine, Bernd and Narrog, Heiko, 51–65. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Corver, Norbert. 1992. Left branch extraction. In Proceedings of North East Linguistics Society (NELS) 22, ed. Broderick, Kimberly, 67–84. Amherst, MA: Graduate Linguistic Student Association (GLSA).Google Scholar
Cote, Sharon Ann. 1996. Grammatical and discourse properties of null arguments in English. Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Culy, Christopher. 1996. Null objects in English recipes. Language Variation and Change 8: 91–124.Google Scholar
Cummins, Sarah and Roberge, Yves. 2005. A modular account of null objects in French. Syntax 8: 44–64.Google Scholar
Dayal, Veneeta. 2011. Hindi pseudo-incorporation. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29: 123–167.Google Scholar
Déchaine, Rose-Marie and Martina, Wiltschko. 2002. Decomposing pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry 33: 409–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duguine, Maia. 2013. Pro-drop as ellipsis: Evidence from the interpretation of null arguments. Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW) 36 handout.Google Scholar
Fielding, Helen. 1996. Bridget Jones' Diary. Oxford: Picador.Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. 1986. Pragmatically controlled zero anaphora. In Proceedings of the Twelth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, ed. Nikiforidou, Vassiliki, Van Clay, Mary, Niepokuj, Mary, and Feder, Deborah, 95–107. Available at: elanguage.net/journals/bls/article/view/2447/2413. Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 2001. Patient arguments of causative verbs can be omitted: The role of information structure in argument distribution. Language Sciences 23: 503–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 2005. Constructions, lexical semantics, and the Correspondence Principle: Accounting for generalizations and subregularities in the realization of arguments. In The syntax of aspect: Deriving thematic and aspectual interpretation, ed. Erteschik-Shir, Nomi and Rapoport, Tova, 215–236. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Groefsema, Marjolein. 1995. Understood arguments: A semantic/pragmatic approach. Lingua 96: 139–161.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 1987a. Complement ellipsis in English: Or how to cook without objects. In Studies in honour of René Derolez, ed. Simon-Vandenbergen, Anne-Marie, 248–261. Ghent: University of Ghent.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 1987b. Register variation in English: Some theoretical observations. Journal of English Linguistics 20: 230–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 2013. The syntax of registers: Diary subject omission and the privilege of the root. Lingua 130: 88–110.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane and Ihsane, Tabea. 1999. Subject ellipsis in embedded clauses in English. English Language and Linguistics 3: 117–145.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane and Ihsane, Tabea. 2001. Adult null subjects in the non-pro-drop languages: Two diary dialects. Language Acquisition 9: 329–346.Google Scholar
Jensen, Britta. 2007. In favour of a truncated imperative clause structure: Evidence from adverbs. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 80: 163–185.Google Scholar
Levin, Beth and Rappaport Hovav, Malka. 1995. Unaccusativity: At the syntax-lexical semantics interface. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Martí, Luisa. 2011. Implicit indefinite objects: Grammar, not pragmatics. Ms., Queen Mary, University of London. Available at: ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/001317.Google Scholar
Massam, Diane and Roberge, Yves. 1989. Recipe context null objects in English. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 134–139.Google Scholar
Mittwoch, Anita. 2005. Unspecified arguments in episodic and habitual sentences. In The syntax of aspect: Deriving thematic and aspectual interpretation, ed. Erteschik-Shir, Nomi and Rapoport, Tova, 237–254. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neeleman, Ad and Szendroi, Kriszta. 2007. Radical pro drop and the morphology of pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry 38: 671–714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oku, Satoshi. 1998. A theory of selection and reconstruction in the minimalist perspective. Doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut.Google Scholar
Pedersen, Walter. 2011. Implicit arguments, paychecks and variable-free semantics. In Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 21, ed. Ashton, Neil, Chereches, Anca, and Lutz, David, 155–175. Available at: elanguage.net/journals/salt/article/view/21.155.Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, Ana Teresa, Pirvulescu, Mihaela, and Roberge, Yves. 2008. Null arguments in child language: Syntax and the lexicon. Lingua 118: 370–398.Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, Ana T., Pirvulescu, Mihaela, Roberge, Yves, and Castilla, Anny. 2013. On the development of null implicit objects in LI English. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 58: 443–464.Google Scholar
Platzack, Christer and Rosengren, Inger. 1997. On the subject of imperatives: A minimalist account of the imperative clause. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 1: 177–224.Google Scholar
Postal, Paul. 1969. On so-called pronouns in English. In Modern studies in English: Readings in transformational grammar, ed. Reibel, David and Sanford Schane, , 201–224. Engle-wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Raposo, Eduardo. 1998. Definite/zero alternations in Portuguese: Towards a unification of topic constructions. In Romance linguistics: Theoretical perspectives, ed. Schwe-gler, Armin, Tranel, Bernard, and Uribe-Etxebarria, Myriam, 197–212. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Levin, Beth. 1998. Building verb meanings. In The projection of arguments: Lexical and compositional factors, ed. Butt, Miriam and Geuder, Wilhelm, 97–134. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) Publications.Google Scholar
Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Levin, Beth. 2010. Reflections on manner/result complementarity. In Lexical semantics, syntax, and event structure, ed. Rappaport Hovav, Malka, Doron, Edit, and Sichel, Ivy, 21–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reuland, Eric. 2011. Anaphora and language design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Rice, Sally. 1988. Unlikely lexical entries. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, ed. Aske, Jon, Beery, Natasha, Michaelis, Laura, and Filip, Hana, 202–212. Available at: elanguage.net/journals/bls/article/view/2548.Google Scholar
Ritter, Elizabeth. 1993. Where's gender? Linguistic Inquiry 24: 795–803.Google Scholar
Ritter, Elizabeth. 1995. On the syntactic category of pronouns and agreement. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 13: 405–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 2006. Grammatically-based target-inconsistencies in child language. In The proceedings of the Inaugural Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition — North America (GALANA), ed. Ud Deen, Kamil, Nomura, Jun, Schulz, Barbara, and Schwartz, Bonnie D., 19–49. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian. 2010. A deletion analysis of null subjects. In Parametric variation: Null subjects in minimalist theory, ed. Biberauer, Theresa, Holmberg, Anders, Roberts, Ian, and Sheehan, Michelle, 58–87. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian. 2012. On the nature of syntactic parameters: A programme for research. In Parameter theory and linguistic change, ed. Galves, Charlotte, Cyrino, Sonia, Lopes, Ruth, Sandalo, Filomena, and Avelar, Juanito, 319–334. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rooryck, Johan and Wyngaerd, Guido Vanden. 2011. Dissolving Binding Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ruppenhofer, Josef. 2005. Regularities in null instantiation. Ms., Saarland University.Google Scholar
Ruppenhofer, Josef and Michaelis, Laura A.. 2010. A constructional account of genre-based argument omissions. Constructions and Frames 2: 158–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruppenhofer, Josef and Michaelis, Laura A.. 2013. Frames and the interpretation of omitted arguments in English. Ms., Hildesheim University and University of Colorado.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey, and Svartvik, Jan. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Saab, Andrés. 2010. (Im)possible deletions in the Spanish DP. Iberia 2: 45–83.Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru. 2007. Notes on East Asian argument ellipsis. Language Research 43: 203–227.Google Scholar
Scott, Kate. 2013. Pragmatically motivated null subjects in English: A Relevance Theory perspective. Journal of Pragmatics 53: 68–83.Google Scholar
Şener, Serkan and Takahashi, Daiko. 2010. Ellipsis of arguments in Japanese and Turkish. Nanzan Linguistics 6: 79–99.Google Scholar
Simpson, Jane. 1983. Resultatives. In Papers in Lexical-Functional Grammar, ed. Levin, Lori, Rappaport, Malka, and Zaenen, Annie, 143–157. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan and Wilson, Deirdre. 1986/1995. Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tomioka, Satoshi. 2003. The semantics of Japanese null pronouns and its cross-linguistic implications. In The interfaces: Deriving and interpreting omitted structures, ed. Schwabe, Kerstin and Winkler, Susanne, 321–339. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Weir, Andrew. 2009. Subject pronoun drop in informal English. Ms., University College London. Available at http://www.isle-linguistics.org/resources/weir2009.pdf. Google Scholar
Weir, Andrew. 2012a. Article drop in headlinese. Hadnout, EC05, April 7. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/2088189/Article/_drop/_in/_Headlinese. Google Scholar
Weir, Andrew. 2012b. Left-edge deletion in English and subject omission in diaries. English Language and Linguistics 16: 105-29.Google Scholar
Weir, Andrew. 2013a. Article drop in headlines and truncation of CP. Handout, Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), Boston, January 3-6. Available at: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/files/3540-6845-1-SM.pdf. Google Scholar
Weir, Andrew. 2013b. Object drop and article drop in reduced written register: A unified analysis. Slides, Register Variation and Syntactic Theory workshop, International Congress of Linguists, University of Geneva, July 21-27. Available at: http://users.ugent.be/~aweir/ICL-weir-pres-handout.pdf. Google Scholar
Willim, Ewa. 2000. On the grammar of Polish nominals. In Step by step: Essays in minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik, ed. Martin, Roger, Michaels, David, and Uriagereka, Juan, 319–346. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar