Null Direct Objects in Spanish Conversation

Abstract

The occurrence of Spanish ambitransitive verbs without an explicit object has been accounted for in previous studies by appealing to the semantic and pragmatic properties of the inferable referent of the empty object structural slot. In this line, null objects have been characterized within the category of low transitive objects because they display a low degree of individuation, specificity, and animacy. In addition, in terms of information structure, null objects have also been shown to display a low degree of topicality. An analysis of the null direct objects we find in a corpus of casual conversation of Iberian Spanish, however, shows that these semantic and informational properties can only account for over one-third of all the examples. A larger portion of null direct objects in casual conversation occurs in constructions that are undergoing a process of grammaticalization. Among these, we identify two main types: hendiadic constructions with the verb coger 'take', and constructions with a perception verb that have a turn-regulatory function. These are, by far, the most frequent usage pattern of null direct objects we find in the corpus.