On the Distribution of Missing Arguments and Adjuncts under the Pro Approach

Ahn, Hee-Don; Cho, Sungeun

doi:10.30961/lr.2021.57.1.111

Lang. Res. 57(1):111-142

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2021.57.1.111

Article

On the Distribution of Missing Arguments and Adjuncts under the Pro Approach

Hee-Don Ahn¹, Sungeun Cho²^,^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Konkuk University

²Yeungnam University

^†Corresponding Author: Sungeun Cho Professor Department of English Education Yeungnam University 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea E-mail: scho1007@ynu.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2021 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Feb 23, 2021 ; Revised: Apr 02, 2020 ; Accepted: Apr 09, 2021

Published Online: Apr 30, 2021

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on different behaviors of missing arguments and adjuncts. More specifically, this paper shows that interpretations of missing arguments can be freely recovered regardless of their environments while those of missing adjuncts can be recovered in very restricted environments. With respect to this difference, we suggest that missing arguments are syntactically present as silent forms. Hence, their interpretations are relatively less influenced by pragmatic processes. We also suggest that missing adjuncts can be classified into two types. Adjunct reading of one type is obtained through mandatory pragmatic enrichment processes like saturation, and that of the other type is obtained through optional free pragmatic enrichment. Hence, interpretations of missing adjuncts are more influenced by context. We further show that the analysis advanced here can provide a solid explanation for the data pointed out by Yim (2020). We also discuss some advantages of pronoun analysis in comparison to argument ellipsis analyses and Verb-Stranding VP ellipsis analyses.

Keywords: missing argument; missing adjunct; pronoun analysis; argument ellipsis; saturation; free pragmatic enrichment

References

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2009). On the absence of CP ellipsis in English and Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 34, 267-281 .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2010). More on the absence of CP ellipsis: A reply to Park (2009). Studies in Generative Grammar, 20, 549-576 .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2011a). Notes on apparent DP ellipsis: A reply to Lee & Kim (2010). Korean Journal of Linguistics, 36, 457-471 .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2011b). On sloppy-like interpretation of null arguments. Linguistic Research, 28(3), 471-492 .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2012a). Some ellipsis phenomena in Korean. In B.-S. Park, ed. Proceedings of the 14th Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar, 3-38. Seoul: Hankuk Publishing Co .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2012b). On null arguments and clausal ellipsis in Korean. Language and Linguistics, 57, 95-124 .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2012c). Fragments vs. null arguments in Korean. In S. Muller, ed. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 369-387. CSLI Publications .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2013). On apparent problems of pro analysis of null arguments. Studies in Generative Grammar, 23, 509-524 .

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2019). Yengnonhanguy pro(yengtaymyengsa) pwunsek cayko [A Pro Analysis of Null Arguments Revisited]. Language and Linguistics, 86, 85-112 .

10.

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2020a). Yengnonhanguy taymyengsa pwunsekey tayhan caykochal [Reconsideration of pronoun analysis of null arguments]. Language and Information, 24, 1-13 .

11.

Ahn, H.-D., & Cho, S. (2020b). A pronoun analysis of null arguments in Korean. Language Research 56-2, 183-223 .

12.

Asher, N. (1993). Reference to abstract objects in discourse. Studies in linguistics and philosophy 50. Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, URL http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-94-011- 1715-9 .

13.

Asher, N. (2000). Events, facts, propositions, and evolutive anaphora. In A. Varzi, J. Higginbotham & F. Pianesi, eds. Speaking of events, 123-150. Oxford University Press .

14.

Bernard, T. (2018). Negation in event semantics with actual and nonactual events. Paper presented at ConSOLE 2018 .

15.

Blackmore, D. (1987). Semantic constraints on relevance. Oxford: Blackwell .

16.

Carston, R. (1988). Implicature, explicature, and truth-theoretical semantics. In R. Kempson, ed. Mental representation: the interface between language and reality, 155-81. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

17.

Carston, R. (2002) Thoughts and utterances. Oxford: Blackwell .

18.

Chung, S. (2013). Syntactic identity in sluicing: How much and why. Linguistic Inquiry 44, 1-44 .

19.

Clark, B. (2013). Relevance theory. University Press, Cambridge .

20.

Collins, C. (2015). Adjunct deletion. Ms., NYU .

21.

Depraetere, I. & Salkie, R. (2017). Free pragmatic enrichment, expansion, saturation, completion: A view from linguistics. In I. Depraetere & R. Salkie, eds. Semantics and pragmatics: Drawing a line, 11-37. Springer .

22.

Funakoshi, K. (2012). On Headless XP-Movement/Ellipsis. Lingistic Inquiry, 43, 519-562 .

23.

Funakoshi, K. (2013). Disjunction and object drop in Japanese. Tampa Papers in Linguistics, 4, 11-20 .

24.

Han, C.-h, K.-m. Kim, K. Moulton and J. Lidz (2020). Null objects in Korean: experimental evidence for the argument ellipsis analysis. Linguistic Inquiry, 51, 319-340 .

25.

Hoji, H. (1998). Null object and sloppy identity in Japanese. Linguistic Inquiry, 29, 127-152 .

26.

Huang, J. (1982). Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. Doctoral Dissertation, MIT .

27.

Johnson, K. (2001). What VP ellipsis can do, and what it can't but not why. In M. Baltin and C. Collins, eds. The handbook of contemporary syntactic theory, 439-479. Blackwell .

28.

Kim, S. (1999). Sloppy/strict identity, empty objects, and NP ellipsis. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 8, 255-284 .

29.

Landau, I. (2020). On the nonexistence of verb-stranding VP-Ellipsis. Linguistic Inquiry, 51, 341-365 .

30.

Lee, W. (2011). Zero realization of arguments revisited. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 36, 1031-1052 .

31.

Lee, W. (2014). Argumental gaps in Korean. The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal, 22, 1-29 .

32.

Lee, W. (2016). Argument ellipsis vs. V-stranding VP ellipsis in Korean: Evidence from disjunction. Linguistic Research, 33, 1-20 .

33.

Lee, W., & Kim, J. (2010). DP ellipsis as independent phenomena from pro in pro-drop languages. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 35, 1009-1029 .

34.

Maienborn, C. (2011). Event semantics. In H. Maienborn, and P. Portner, eds. Semantics, 802-829. de Gruyter .

35.

Merchant, J. (2001). The syntax of silence: Sluicing, islands, and the theory of ellipsis. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press .

36.

Moon, G.-S. (2010). Null arguments redux. The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal, 18, 67-92 .

37.

Moon, G.-S. (2015). A non-isomorphism approach to null-argument anaphora in Korean. Studies in Generative Grammar, 25(1), 217-236 .

38.

Moon, G.-S. (2017). Co-varying pronominal anaphors: Focusing on bound variable pronouns. Studies in Generative Grammar, 27(1), 221-239 .

39.

Moon, G.-S. (2019). On the validity of the skolemized choice function approach to small pro anaphora in Korean. Studies in Generative Grammar, 29(2), 413-439 .

40.

Murasugi, K. (1991). Noun phrases in Japanese and English: A study in syntax, learnability and acquisition (Doctoral dissertation). University of Connecticut, Storrs .

41.

Oku, S. (1998). LF copy analysis of Japanese null arguments. CLS, 34, 299-314 .

42.

Oku, S. (2016). A note on ellipsis-resistant constituents. Nanzan Linguistics, 11, 56-70 .

43.

Otani, K., & Whitman, J. (1991). V-raising and VP ellipsis. Linguistic Inquiry, 22, 345-358 .

44.

Park, M.-K. (1994). A morpho-syntactic study of Korean verbal inflection. Doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut, Storrs .

45.

Park, M.-K. (1997). The syntax of VP ellipsis in Korean. Language Research, 33, 629-648 .

46.

Park, M.-K. (2014). Some remarks on the licensing condition on the null argument in Korean (and Japanese). Studies in Generative Grammar, 24, 499-513 .

47.

Recanati, F. (1989) The pragmatics of what is said. Mind and Language, 4, 97-120 .

48.

Recanati. F. (2010) Truth-conditional pragmatics. Clarendon Press. Oxford .

49.

Saito, M. (2007). Notes on East Asian argument ellipsis. Language Research, 43, 203-227 .

50.

Saito, M. (2017). Ellipsis, In M. Shibatani, S. Miyagawa, & H. Noda, eds. Handbook of Japanese Syntax, 701-750. De Gruyter Mouton .

51.

Takahashi, D. (2008). Noun phrase ellipsis. In S. Miyagawa & M. Saito, eds. The Oxford handbook of Japanese linguistics, 394-422. New York: Oxford University Press .

52.

Tomioka, S. (2014). Remarks on missing arguments in Japanese. Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics 7, 251-263 .

53.

Vendler, Z. (1967). Linguistics in philosophy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY .

54.

Walczak, G. (2016) On explicatures, cancellability and cancellation. SpringerPlus, 5, 1115-1121 .

55.

Yim, C. (2020). Further evidence against the pro analysis of argument ellipsis in Korean. Studies in Generative Grammar, 30, 433-446 .