Case and the ECP revisited: reply to Kellerman and Yoshioka (1999)

Abstract

Kellerman and Yoshioka (1999) report the results of three studies on case drop in Japanese involving Dutch-speaking L2 learners. They claim that contra Kanno (1996 and 1998), there was no evidence that their subjects have access to the Empty Category Principle (ECP), which is claimed to regulate the omission of case particles in Japanese. In its place, they propose an alternative functional account: the one-noun hypothesis. Kellerman and Yoshioka point to the availability of Japanese in Hawaii (where Kanno's studies took place) as the source for the ‘inter-population intra-principle’ inconsistency between their study and hers. This paper re-examines their results and argues that they do not undermine the ECP hypothesis. In support of Kanno (1996 and 1998), this paper also presents the results of a new experiment and a reanalysis of Hirakawa's (1998) study.