Volume 40, Issue 3

In this paper, we have analyzed a whole set of data of gapping in Mandarin Chinese from a novel point of view and fleshed out a bi-sentential derivation analysis for the formation of this construction. While taking the canonical gapping in English as a reference, we have explored some idiomatic properties of the relevant structures in Chinese and summarized core differences: the gapping constructions in English follow a strict rule of sentence grammar while those of Chinese have demonstrated kind of inter-sentential effect. We propose that such differences can be attributed to the prosodic factors: The Constraint on Sentential Intonation in Chinese (CSIC for short), firstly proposed in Feng (Feng, Shengli. 2017. Hanyu jufa zhongyin yudiao xianghu zuoyong de yufa xiaoying. ‘On grammatical effects of interactions between intonation, stress and syntax’. Yuyan Jiaoxue yu Yanjiu [Language Teaching and Linguistic Study] (1). 1–15), bans the occurrence of the coordinate [VP & VP] structures, and thus two parallel but separate sentences are used in the contexts where a sentence with VP coordination in English is used. Then, the verb in the second sentence is deleted at PF under the identity condition. Consequently, the gapping structures thus formed demonstrate their own unique properties and are different from the canonical gapping in English. The result of our discussion indicates that prosody can play a role in accounting for language specificities as well as cross-linguistic variations.

This study argues against the verb-raising analysis of Japanese Non-Constituent Coordination (NCC), and consequently supports an alternative analysis with no recourse to verb movement in Narrow Syntax. I show that the verb-raising analysis under-generates regarding VP-fronting in Japanese. Furthermore, I point out that this analysis makes wrong predictions about the scope between heads and elements inside NCC. I conclude that there is no syntactic V-to-T-to-C verb-raising in Japanese NCC.

Recent studies reveal that the values of finiteness, tense, modality and polarity in a clause elided under sluicing may be distinct from their correlates in the antecedent clause. Focusing on CP ellipsis in Hebrew (an instance of Argument Ellipsis), we first demonstrate that it is distinct from both Null Complement Anaphora and (null) pronominalization, and then show that the values of force (declarative, imperative, interrogative) can be distinct between the antecedent and the missing clause as well. Possible mismatches are bidirectional, ruling out “subset” theories of identity in ellipsis and challenging certain accounts of the semantics of polar questions. Implications for the general theory of ellipsis are discussed and evaluated.

Since at least Postal (1974. On raising . Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press), English has been assumed to possess a class of verbs that does not syntactically tolerate an overt noun phrase in the “usual” subject position of an infinitival complement clause but will allow one if it has undergone passivization, Wh -formation, Heavy-NP Shift, etc. This class of verbs has been variously described as Derived Object Constraint (DOC) verbs (Postal, Paul. 1974. On raising . Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, Postal, Paul. 1993. Some defective paradigms. Linguistic Inquiry 24(2). 347–364), ECM-with-Focus verbs (Rooryck, Johan. 2000. Configurations of sentential complementation: Perspectives from Romance languages . London & New York: Routledge), and wager -class verbs (Pesetsky, David. 2019. Exfoliation: Towards a derivational theory of clause size . Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Unpublished ms., Version 2.0. http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004440 (accessed 26 April 2022)). Based on the author’s own judgments, supplemented by the results of an acceptability survey conducted at an American university, this paper makes the novel claim that an English verb class with these grammatical properties does not exist, a finding that significantly reduces the inventory of grammatical mechanisms needed to account for complementation types generally. In addition, this paper develops new accounts of two distributional characteristics of the wager verbs that certain other Raising to Object (RO)/Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) verbs do not exhibit. First, infinitival complements to wager verbs are argued to be aspectually linked to the matrix verb, while those of predict -type verbs are not. This explains a well-known stative restriction on complements to this verb class, which includes believe . Second, judgments of unacceptability previously attributed to Postal’s DOC or its counterpart in other theories are argued to result from three pragmatic usage preferences involving register and atypical degree that are encoded by the selection of the marked RO option with this verb class, preferences that play out differently for believe as opposed to wager verbs.