Serial Verbs and the Empty Category Principle in Krio

Abstract

One of the principles of grammar introduced in Chomsky (1981) is the Empty Category Principle, which can be stated as follows: (i)[α e] must be properly governed.Proper government, as defined by Chomsky, is of two types (see footnote 2). First, there is proper government by a lexical category of the [±N±V] type. In (2a), for example, the empty category (ei) is properly governed by the verb see, a lexical element of the [-N+V] type. Second, there is proper government by coindexation. In (2b), for example, the empty category in subject position (ei) is properly governed by the coindexed trace in COMP (ti).