Empty Category Principle Research Articles

The Status of a Nonparametrized Principle in the L2 Initial State

In this article, I report an experimental study that examines the role that Universal Grammar (UG) plays in the early stages of the acquisition of Japanese as a second language (L2) by adult learners. The study addresses the issue of whether a nonparametrized principle of UG that is instantiated in the first language (L1) is active enough in the early stages of L2 learning to apply to phenomena for which there are no counterparts in the L1. The phenomenon investigated here involves case particle deletion in Japanese. The nominative case and accusative case contrast in terms of their omissibility--the latter can be freely dropped, whereas the former cannot. This contrast is regulated by the Empty Category Principle--a principle that exists in essentially the same form in English but that applies to a very different set of phenomena in that language. Not only did the L2 learners exhibit a statistically significant difference in the deletability of the nominative and the accusative cases, consistent with t...

Constraints on Movement Phenomena in Sentence Processing: Evidence from Event-related Brain Potentials

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 13 scalp electrodes while subjects read sentences, some of which contained a violation of constraints on constituent movement (subjacency or the empty category principle). In two experiments, the first word that indicated a violation elicited a widely distributed positive-going wave with a nonset between 250 and 300m sec and a duration of several hundred milliseconds. This effect was similar to the positive shifts that have been observed in response to other types of syntactic violations (P600), but qualitatively distinct from the N400 response elicited by semantically/pragmatically anomalous words. These findings are taken as an indication that movement constraints can be applied during the earliest stages of sentence processing, perhaps in conjunction with the creation of phrase structure. We evaluate the hypothesis that the P600 is a general electrophysiological marker of syntactic anomaly.

Ellipsis: Functional Heads, Licensing, and Identification

Lobeck elaborates a theory of ellipsis which brings the phenomenon under the aegis of very general and universal principles. She argues that the Empty Category Principle (ECP) constrain the distribution of ellipsis just as it constrains the distributions of traces and null pronouns, which has implications not only for ellipsis but for the study of empty categories as well.

Clause structure and V-movement in the languages of the Balkans

Albanian, Bulgarian, Modern Greek, and Rumanian share the following clause structure: [CP C0 [MP M0 [T/AgrP T/Agr0 [AuxP Aux0 [VP V0]]]]]. In Balkan clauses, the phrase headed by the complementizer takes a phrase headed by an invariant modal particle as complement. The Tense/Agreement complex, the auxiliaries, and the main verb follow MP. In addition, Balkan languages share interesting varieties of X0-movement for non-finite verbs, with theoretical consequences for principles of UG. In Bulgarian and Rumanian, (Long) Head-movement raises V0 to C0 across the finite Aux0, as inProcel sŭm knigata ‘I have read the book’; such structures comply with the Empty Category Principle via Relativized Minimality, and escape the Head Movement Constraint. In Albanian, Greek, and Rumanian, Head-movement places the imperative V0 in C0, as inGhrapse to ‘Write it!’. Albanian imperatives show Long Head Movement and comply with the ECP like other LHM patterns in cases where the V-stem precedes the clitic and the affix in that order:Tregoj-i-ni ‘Tell him!’. Greek and Rumanian Gerunds display Head-movement to M0, as inI Maria kratondas to ‘Mary holding it’. In similar Albanian constructions M0 is filled, and this prevents V0-raising, as inPashe [Brixhiden [M0duke]kenduar] ‘I saw Brigitte singing’.

The logical approach to syntax: foundations, specifications, and implementations of theories of government and binding

Part 1 Logical foundations: theories about strings deductive reasoning about languages deductive parsing - context-free phrase structure and natural language phrase structure. Part 2 Formalizing barriers: X-bar theory the theory of movement government and barriers structure, preservation, head movement and bounding the empty category principle and minimality. Part 3 Variations and elaborations: determiner phrases inflectional phrases and head movement VP-internal subjects. Part 4 Computational models: guided deductions from linguistic theory parsing as constraint satisfaction. Appendices: proving a negative result from RT the first order formalization a guided proof system.

Resetting Universal Grammar parameters: evidence from Second Language Acquisition of Subjacency and the Empty Category Principle

This article is concerned with whether the principles of UG are available in adult Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as in child first language acquisi tion. My hypothesis is that these principles are fully available to the L2 learner, and that the process of L2 acquisition is, in fact, a process of parameter-reassignment or new assignment in which the L2 learner resets the parameter-values of the L1 to their values in the L2. In order to test this hypothesis, I built on previous work by Martohardjono (1991) and conducted a study which examined the acquisition of two principles of UG, Subjacency and the Empty Category Principle, by native speakers of Hebrew learning English as a second language. I made a series of predictions with respect to the patterns of acquisition for various constructions in the target language, based on the assumption that L2 grammars are systems of knowledge guided by the internal logic, or 'systematicity' specified by UG. These predictions were borne out by the results of my study, leading to the conclusion that UG is indeed available in SLA. My conclusion corroborates other studies in the field which have reached similar conclusions (e.g., Flynn, 1987; White, 1988 and Martohardjono, 1991).

The Acquisition of Wh-Question Formation by Malagasy Learners of English: Evidence for Universal Grammar

In investigations of the question of whether or not Universal Grammar (UG) is available in non-primary language acquisition, a number of researchers have tried to isolate situations where the way principles of UG operate in the first language (L1) could not help the learner acquire the relevant properties of the second language (L2). If learners show evidence of acquiring properties of the L2 that could not be acquired from the input alone and could not be reconstructed via the L1, this suggests that UG is available in non-primary acquisition; in contrast, if learners fail under such circumstances, this supports the claim that UG is no longer directly accessible. In particular, there has been a tradition of looking at island constraints in this light, using L1s and L2s which differ radically in terms of the surface effects of principles like Subjacency and the Empty Category Principle (ECP) (e.g., Bley-Vroman et al 1988; Johnson and Newport 1991; Martohardjono 1991a, 1991b; Martohardjono and Gair 1992; Schachter 1989, 1990; White 1989, 1992).

The Case Filter and Licensing of Empty K

In this paper, we will investigate certain phenomena which appear sensitive to particular conditions of adjacency and provide an explanation of these conditions in terms of syntactic structure and principles defined over such structure. Two interesting results which follow from such an explanation are: (i) the Case Filter given in (1) below, which stipulates that phonetically realized NPs must receive Case, may be subsumed under the Empty Category Principle, and (ii) the claim that only Case-marked traces are visible at PF (which has been suggested as an explanation of wanna contraction facts) can be given a structural account.

Doch eine grammatische Kategorie ‘Exklamativ’?

In this paper, the problem will be discussed whether the pragmatic category 'exclamative' has a grammatical pendant and how this pragmatic category is derived from the corresponding semantic structure if there doesn't exist a semantic 'exclamative' category. Special accentual properties and the possible dislocation of the wh-phrase 'wie' from the adjective phrase as in ‘wie ist er [e gros]’ seem to be the only grammatical evidences indicating the exclamative type. The movement of 'wie' without violating the Chomskean Empty Category Principle is assumed to be possible because of the existence of a syntactic sentence feature [+ EX], which cancels the barrierhood of the wie-containing adjective phrase. Both the feature [+ EX] and the barrierhood of the wie-containing adjective phrases in wh-questions and embedded wh-clauses are motivated by a pragmatic principle.

A Course in GB Syntax: Lectures on Binding and Empty Categories

A Course in GB Syntax is a new kind of linguistics textbook. It presents the fundamental concepts of the Government-Binding approach to syntax in a lecture-dialogue format that conveys the sense of a changing field, with live issues under debate.Students and professionals seeking a lucid introduction to the complexities of GB syntax will have the experience of participating in an actual course taught by a major practitioner. The presentation of fundamentals is followed by further examples, easily understandable discussion of technical questions, and alternative analyses within the same basic framework.The book fits welI between a more general introduction like van Riemsdijk and Williams' Introduction to the of Grammar and the major GB literature. While it has been designed for use by graduate students in a second semester syntax course, it can serve as a reader's companion to important but sometimes forbidding texts like Noam Chomsky's Lectures on Government and Binding and Some Concepts and Consequences of the of Government and Binding.The informal tone makes the subject more approachable; examples are worked out more slowly and in greater detail than is possible in the primary sources; and the definitions and notational devices are carefully explained. Finally, many of the questions that the student might want to raise are raised (in fact, by students) and answers and alternatives are explored.The lectures give an overview of the modular GB model and cover in detail Case theory; Binding Theory; the determination of empty categories, parasitic gaps, and the Empty Category Principle; extensions and alternatives, such as Aoun's Generalized Binding Theory and Higginbotham's linking analysis, and various open questions, such as the nature of the Case filter, tough movement, weak crossover, illicit NP-movement, and topicalization.Howard Lasnik is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Connecticut. Juan Uriagereka, one of his graduate students, transcribed and did the initial editing of the tapes of the original lectures. Current Studies in Linguistics.

On the German infinitival marker zu and the analysis of raising constructions

This paper argues, within the Government-Binding framework, that the German infinitive marker zu is a complementizer morpheme, not an INFL morpheme, as is standardly assumed; and that subject-Raising is possible in the presence of a complementizer, again contrary to the standard view. Treating zu as a complementizer allows for a simple and unified account, not previously available, for the absence of interrogative infinitives, of accusative subjects, and of verb-second effects in infinitives containing zu. The existence of subject-Raising in constructions with zu-infinitives creates a problem insofar as subject-Raising entails S'-deletion — i.e. the absence of a complementizer — according to the standard version of the theory. Since, however, by contrast with other languages, there is no independent evidence for S'-deletion in the relevant constructions of German, it is argued here that the relevant part of the theory — the Empty Category Principle — should be revised so as to permit Raising without S'-deletion in just the German case. The second part of the paper makes a specific proposal to this effect within the terms of Chomsky's (1986) ‘Barriers’ framework.

Complementizer-cliticization in Hebrew and the empty category principle

I have tried to show that the complementizer se adjoins to or substitutes for an X0 category on its right. This process of syntactic movement vacates the head of the CP node. That is why se fails to trigger complementizer-trace phenomena. I have assumed in this paper the X-bar schemata proposed in Chomsky (1986). Specifically, I adopted the proposal that the X-bar convention carries over to the non-lexical projections of COMP and INFL. Under this view, S' is a projection of C(OMP), labelled CP and has the structure given in (20), with [SPEC/CP] being the landing-site of Whoperators and the head of CP, the node under which the complementizer is generated. Note, now that in a theory where COMP and S' are taken to be defective categories from the point of view of X-bar theory, the first because it does not project beyond its head, the second because it fails to have either a SPEC or a head, it is hard to motivate movement of a complementizer.13 If Wh-movement involves adjunction to COMP, as a number of theories have held, it is hard to see how movement of COMP itself, that is, the category to which Wh-elements adjoin, could be licensed. In the theory advanced in Chomsky (1986), movement of a complementizer is a sub-case of Head Movement, a perfectly licit and familiar sort of movement. The analysis proposed for the Hebrew complementizer se in this paper may thus be taken as an argument in favor of the structure in (20) above.

O parametro pro - drop e a aquisicao de segunda lingua

Within the Government and Binding theory (GB), it is assumed the man is equipped with some innate language structure, Universal Grammar (UG), which contains a set of inviolable principles plus some open parameters which are set by experience. One such universal principle is the Empty Category Principle (ECP), which states that an empty category must be properly governed. There are some languages which seem to violate the ECP. These languages present some properties related to missing subjects, which are said to be part of a parameter, the Pro-Drop Parameter. To overcome problems with the ECP, GB theory explains the Pro-Drop Parameter as being one of the ways by which languages may vary-the variation being, in this case, with respect to the governing relation of subject and verb The child, equipped with UG and exposed to a language such as English, sets the parameter as to not allow (phonologically) null subjects. The parameter will be set differently if the child is exposed to a language that allows null subjects. An interesting question arises when we think about the L2 learner. If L2 acquisition is a process similar to LI acquisition, we may assume the L2 learner has some access to UG. My research investigates this question. In the case of native speakers of English learning Spanish (a Pro-Drop language), I hypothesized that: a) if the L2 learner has some access to UG, after being exposed to L2 data he will know there is an apparent violation of the ECP; b) acquisition of the Pro-Drop Parameter should imply the acquisition of the related cluster of properties. The subjects in this experiment were asked to give grammatical judgments to sentences containing the parameter properties. The results strongly suggest the accessibility of UG for adult L2 learners when one specific claim of the theory is considered.

A Grammar of Anaphora

The study of anaphoric expressions -- especially reflexives and reciprocals -- has played an increasingly important role in linguistic theory. Within the Extended Standard Theory, the central notions of government and binding have depended crucially on the proper understanding of anaphoric relations. A Grammar of Anaphora offers the most comprehensive and significant treatment of such phenomena currently available. Its theoretical and empirical investigation of the notions of anaphora and of binding in syntax should define the direction of research in this field for the next decade.In Chomsky's Government-Binding (G-B) framework the relationship between an anaphoric expression and its antecedent is constrained by certain binding principles. This book argues that another kind of anaphoric relation exists, beyond those defined by Chomsky's framework. Its generalization of binding extends the theory so that it can solve various conceptual and empirical problems that it originally raised, and provides a unified explanation of seemingly unrelated phenomena in a host of constructions and languages. The book is also able to dispense with the Empty Category Principle which has been a major focus within G-B theory. It proposes instead a structural unification of the notions of pronouns, empty categories, and anaphors which leads to new insights in areas never treated in a coherent way before.

The relation between the middle tone and empty category principle violations in Krio

An examination of monosyllabic words in Krio reveals the existence of three distinct tones: high. mid and low. words of more than one syllable. However, only two tones are attested: high and low. The mid tone is, in fact, found only in monosyllabic forms in two very specific contexts: citation forms and sentence final forms. In other contexts. the mid tone ia replaced by the high tone. This suggests that the mid tone is merely a phonetic variant of the high tone. The interaction of tones and syntax is considered.