Null Objects Research Articles

Null objects, null nominal anaphora and antilogophoricity

Abstract This paper discusses null objects (NOs) in Ibero-Romance. European Portuguese (EP) has both definite and indefinte NOs, but Castillian Spanish (CSpanish) only allows NOs when the antecedent is a bare plural nominal or a mass noun. The paper argues that these differences are related to the distribution of bare nominals in each language and proposes that the same underlying mechanism is at the root of indefinite and definite object drop, namely a rootless [ nP n ] proform. [ nP n ] denotes a contextually salient property, its possible interpretations being derived by general type-shifting operations. In CSpanish, the property denoted by [ nP n ] is interpreted as a restrictive modifier of the predicate and the relevant variable is bound under VP level Existential Closure. Focusing on EP, there are striking similarities between definite NOs and other types of nominal anaphora, including epithets. In particular, like epithets, NOs are subject to an Antilogophoricity Constraint. This affinity between NOs and epithets constitutes a case in favor of the idea that the NO is a base-generated nominal. The difference with respect to CSpanish lies in the possibility of interpreting the null nominal by a choice function, a function maps a property onto an entity that has the property.

Dialogic and pragmatic aspects of early object realization: a crosslinguistic comparison of three Romance languages

This exploratory research aimed to assess the impact of pragmatic and dialogic factors on the choice of referring expressions at the onset of transitive constructions in three Romance languages. The study was conducted using a corpus of three adult-child dialogues with three 2;6-year-old children acquiring Brazilian Portuguese (BP), Spanish (Sp), and French (Fr). After analyzing the distribution of forms for accusative and dative objects, we assessed the impact of the input (through two levels of influence) and of the attentional and discursive status of the referents (through four degrees of accessibility). Overall, the results showed the children’s sensitivity to pragmatic factors, but we also found different uses for null objects in each language: the Brazilian child used more over-explicit forms when nulls would be accepted, while the French child used null objects when pronouns were expected. The Spanish-speaking child showed little disparity from the adults’ usage. The three children adopted linguistic forms from the adults' speech, and this strategy seems to contribute to the children's assessment of referent accessibility and the acquisition of challenging weak forms.

Exploring Optionality

The following paper considers the potential for optionality of anaphoric null objects in two early Romance languages: Old French and Old Tuscan. In both languages, anaphoric objects can be omitted in different syntactic contexts (e.g., in coordination with prepositional infinitives or in adjunct non-finite clauses). However, overt objects can be found in almost all contexts which also allow null objects. The current paper argues that null objects in both Old French and Old Tuscan were optional, in the sense that they were never the only option for objects, and that having a null or an overt object did not have bearing in the interpretation of the sentence.

Indefinite readings of referential null subjects and null objects in Spanish

Indefinite readings of referential null subjects and null objects in Spanish

On Brazilian Portuguese 3rd person object full pronouns

It has been observed that certain overt 3rd person object pronouns, such as ‘it’ in paycheck sentences, propositional clitics in Portuguese and English, 3rd person non-propositional clitics in Catalan, Spanish, Slovenian and Serbian/Croatian may allow sloppy readings. Additionally, it is well-known that Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has lost 3rd person object clitics, which were replaced either by [-animate] null objects or by [± animate] full pronouns. The latter, differently from personal 3rd person clitics in certain languages, do not allow strict/sloppy readings, regardless of their animacy feature specification. Nevertheless, animacy is relevant for the use of 3rd person object full pronouns in BP since only the [+animate] ones can be focused. I propose that the BP does not fit in the tripartite division of pronouns into ‘strong/weak/clitic’. I assume that full pronouns in Romance underwent a reanalysis from demonstratives, and that BP full pronouns have a structure that precludes them from licensing strict/sloppy readings. As for the animacy distinction in focalization contexts, I assume that [+animate] full pronouns in BP are specified for [Person] and must move out of VP to check that feature. Thus, they escape the relevant vP phase and become available for checking [focus] by a low Focus head.

In defense of verb‐stranding VP ellipsis

AbstractThis remark offers arguments against recent challenges to analyses that postulate verb‐stranding VP ellipsis (Idan Landau, “On the nonexistence of verb‐stranding VP‐ellipsis,” 2020, Linguistic Inquiry 51.2.341–365; Satoshi Oku, “A note on ellipsis‐resistant constituents,” 2016, Nanzan Linguistics 11.56–70). The article defends the verb‐stranding‐VP‐ellipsis hypothesis, arguing that it remains the strongest hypothesis available to account for many instances of ellipsis with null objects in languages such as Hindi, Bangla, and Japanese.

What looks native-like may not necessarily be native-like

Abstract A substantial body of research has investigated null arguments in L2 Chinese, showing that they can be native-like. However, recent linguistic research has demonstrated convincingly that some ‘missing’ arguments in Chinese should be viewed not as ‘null’ arguments but as a result of movement and ellipsis. These advances necessitate a revaluation of the issue of ‘null’ arguments in previous L2 studies which largely overlooked the role of ellipsis in accounting for missing arguments in L2 Chinese. To fill the lacuna, this study recognises the above recent advances and examines whether missing objects in English speakers’ L2 Chinese parallel sentences are a result of verb raising and VP ellipsis and are genuinely native-like. Results of a picture-description task and an acceptability judgement task suggest that although L2ers, like native Chinese speakers, can accept and produce missing objects in Chinese, their native-like performance is driven by mechanisms different from those of native Chinese speakers (i.e., the missing objects are erroneously used as null objects in L2 Chinese). The findings advance our understanding of L1 vs. L2 different mechanisms for phonetically unrealised objects in Chinese, suggesting that what looks native-like in L2 may not necessarily be native-like.

Imperatives and their interaction with VP-ellipsis in Spanish

In this squib, I focus on the interaction between imperative formation and head stranding ellipsis in Spanish, with the aim of reassessing Martins’ (1994) generalization that head movement from V to the polarity-encoding head Σ is a necessary condition for licensing predicate ellipsis. The author argues that Spanish affirmative imperatives, derived by head movement to Σ, behave as predicted by the theory, giving rise to a particular instance of verb stranding ellipsis. In this paper, I show that Spanish does not have the type of ellipsis she predicts in affirmative imperatives. Putative examples of V-stranding XP-ellipsis in the relevant environments are analyzed here as involving some sort of exophoric null object, consistent with Masullo’s (2017) account. Thus, Spanish contrasts sharply with Portuguese, a language which does feature this variety of ellipsis. Consequently, there are important implications for the morphosyntax of Spanish imperatives, the licensing of ellipsis and, more broadly, the theory of head movement.

Completeness in partial type theory

Abstract The present paper provides a completeness proof for a system of higher-order logic framed within partial type theory. The framework is a modification of Tichý’s extension of Church’s simple type theory, equipped with his innovative natural deduction system in sequent style. The system deals with both total and partial (multiargument) functions-as-mappings and also accommodates algorithmic computations arriving at various objects of the framework. The partiality of a function or a failure of a computation is not represented by a postulated null object such as the third truth value. The logical operators of the system are classical. Another welcome feature of this expressive system is that its consequence relation is monotonic.

First Language Transfer in the Acquisition of English Object Pronouns by Sinhala-Speaking ESL Learners

The current paper reports on an empirical study investigating the unlearning of null object pronouns by twenty-four English as a Second Language (ESL) learners from Sri Lanka. Further, the ESL learners are native Sinhala speakers. One of the main crosslinguistic differences between Sinhala and English is that Sinhala allows null object pronouns, whereas English does not. Previous studies have investigated the acquisition of object pronouns by ESL learners, and they report that the acquisition of object pronouns could be problematic for ESL learners due to first language transfer. However, there have been no empirical studies that investigate the unlearning of null arguments by Sinhala ESL learners. Therefore, the present study intends to fill the gap in the research by investigating the unlearning of null object pronouns by Sinhala ESL learners. The data were collected via an audio acceptability judgement task (audio AJT) and a production task (PT). In the audio AJT, the ESL learners accepted null object pronouns to a certain extent, whereas in the PT, they had a strong preference for null object pronouns. Therefore, based on the overall results, I suggest that Sinhala ESL learners have difficulty in unlearning null object pronouns in English.

Null objects in Polish heritage language acquisition in contact with German

Aims and objectives: This study investigates the acquisition of referential expressions for direct objects by child heritage speakers of Polish living in Germany. Our main research questions are how object expression develops in bilingual children and whether their path or pace of acquisition differs from monolingual children. Methodology: We investigate the use of referential expressions in an elicited production task. In all, 39 Polish-German bilingual children participated in the test. Data and analysis: We compare the data of four age groups of bilingual children – 3- to 4-year-olds, 5- to 6-year-olds, 7- to 8-year-olds, and 9- to 10-year-olds – to each other and to monolingual children at the respective ages. For the analysis of participants’ responses, we ran a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with a multinominal dependent variable. Findings: The results show that child heritage language (HL) speakers of Polish display knowledge of semantic and pragmatic constraints of object realization from early stages on. However, from age 5 and up to age 9 to 10, they still produce high rates of inappropriate null objects and show a deceleration in the development of this knowledge, compared to monolingual children. This protracted development is attributed to reduced input in the HL, mainly due to the enrolment in the majority language school. Originality: This study is the first to investigate the development of referential expressions for direct objects in child heritage speakers of Polish in the age span 3 to 10 years. Significance: The study relates the higher rates of null objects in the bilingual production to the varying degrees of exposure to the HL during language development. Deceleration in the pace of object acquisition by the HL speakers at the age of 5 to 6 years is attributed to a prolonged stage of acquisition of integrating rules of syntactic and pragmatic knowledge.

Measuring Implicit and Explicit Grammatical Knowledge in Second Language Acquisition

Previous research shows that due to non-facilitative first language (L1) transfer, second language (L2) speakers do not develop implicit knowledge of certain grammatical structures. Therefore, the present paper investigates whether L1-Sinhala–L2-English speakers could acquire implicit knowledge of English object pronouns. To achieve this goal, the paper compares data collected via an untimed grammaticality judgment task (untimed GJT) and an oral production task (OPT). The untimed GJT measured explicit knowledge, whereas implicit knowledge was measured by the OPT. The two tasks tested the knowledge of object pronouns by L2 English speakers. The object pronominalization differs in Sinhala and English. Object pronouns are expressed overtly in English. Sinhala has overt and null object pronouns. However, null object pronouns are ungrammatical in English. Under the facilitative transfer from Sinhala, L2 speakers would accept overt object pronouns (grammatical structure). On the other hand, under the non-facilitative transfer, they would accept null object pronouns (ungrammatical structure). A prediction was also made regarding the two tasks. If L2 English speakers had acquired explicit and implicit knowledge of object pronouns, they would be target-like on object pronouns in the two tasks. In the untimed GJT, the L2 speakers differentiated between grammatical and ungrammatical structures. However, they frequently used ungrammatical structures in the OPT. Therefore, the results suggest that implicit knowledge of object pronouns is still unavailable in Sinhala–English interlanguage.

Object drop in Spanish is not island-sensitive

Campos (1986) argues that object drop in Spanish exhibits island effects. This claim has remained unchallenged up to today and is largely assumed in the literature. In this paper, I show that this characterization is not empirically correct: given a proper discourse context, null objects can easily appear within a syntactic island in Spanish. This observation constitutes a non-trivial problem for object drop analyses based on movement.

Zusammenspiel zwischen Diskurs und Syntax im Erwerb des Deutschen als Zweitsprache in der Kindheit

The goal of this study is to investigate the interplay of discourse and syntax, as it can be observed in the use of null objects, in the language development of a child who starts to acquire German at the age of nine years in a naturalistic setting. The study shows that children at such an age can profit from the knowledge already acquired in their first language. After nine months of exposure, the child under study uses null objects similarly to monolingual children. The acquisition of null objects in a second language can be impeded at an early stage, however, due to the different syntactic restraints for the use of null objects in the first and second languages.

The online processing of the ambiguous null object in Mandarin among patients with Broca’s aphasia

ABSTRACT Background: Research on how patients with Broca’s aphasia and concomitant agrammatism process dependency structures online offers a window into the understanding of how language is organized in the mind. Previous studies have shown that patients evince differential performances on dependency structures generated at different levels of linguistic representation. The present study extends this line of research to investigate patients’ online processing of referential dependencies involving ambiguous pronominal interpretations. Aims: Mandarin, unlike English, allows the object to be missing (null) in some contexts, rendering these null pronominal forms as ambiguous between two interpretations (strict vs. sloppy), which are generated in different levels of linguistic representation. This study examined Mandarin-speaking healthy and agrammatic aphasic participants’ processing of the two interpretations of the null pronominal form such as Zhangsan qile ta de ma, Lisi ye qile e “literally: Zhangsan rode his horse and Lisi rode, too”, where Lisi rode either Zhangsan’s horse (strict) or Lisi’s horse (sloppy). Methods & Procedures: Two experiments, employing a Cross-Modal Picture Priming paradigm, manipulated three probe picture conditions (strict, sloppy, control) and two probe positions (at the verb phrase offset and 400 ms afterwards). Experiment 1 tested neurologically unimpaired controls in order to establish the time course of processing as a standard of comparison. Experiment 2 tested patients with agrammatic aphasia. Outcomes and Results: Immediately at the verb phrase offset where the null object is structurally licensed, unimpaired individuals primed both the strict and the sloppy interpretations, with no significant difference in reaction times between the two conditions. At the position 400 ms after the verb phrase offset; however, unimpaired participants did not show priming of either of the two interpretations. Patients showed the opposite pattern: at verb phrase offset, they did not show threshold-level priming of either of the two interpretations; 400 ms afterwards, they showed priming of both the strict and sloppy interpretations, with the strict interpretation eliciting significantly longer reaction times than the sloppy interpretation. Conclusions: Patients’ delay in priming both the strict and the sloppy interpretations shows that patients evince a temporal delay when processing dependency structures, which may arise from patients’ deficit with lexical integration. Additionally, patients spent significantly longer reaction times on the strict interpretation relative to the sloppy interpretation, which confirms the prediction that that the former, which is generated in the level of discourse, is computationally more costly than the latter, which is generated in the level of semantics.

Licensing null arguments in recipes across languages

While much of the literature on recipe contexts has focused on English and the availability of null definite patients, this paper shows that both null agents and null patients are possible in recipes in a range of typologically and genetically diverse languages. It is proposed that null agents in recipes arise due to a variety of syntactic strategies, but null patients are uniformly licensed via a null topic in the left periphery in all the languages considered. These results indicate that while the recipe register does not directly dictate specific syntactic structures such as imperatives or null objects, the register can provide the pragmatic context necessary for certain syntactic processes, such as null topicalization.

Null Direct Object Clitics in Basque Spanish: A Study Across Four Generations

AbstractThe null direct object clitic is described as one of the distinctive morphosyntactic features of Basque Spanish (e.g.,compré el libroi, pero se me ha olvidado traerøi). However, no study to date has explored the variable usage of this form in cross-generational terms. The present inquiry aims to fill this void by analyzing and contrasting the results of two studies by four generations of Spanish-Basque bilinguals with the following age ranges: 85–96 (Generation 1), 55–75 (Generation 2), 35–45 (Generation 3), 18–25 (Generation 4). The education level of the participants was also taken into consideration. The first study consisted of an acceptability judgment task, in which the participants rated the acceptability of sentences with a null direct object using a 5-point Likert scale. The independent linguistic variables in this study were the semantic features [+/-definiteness] and [+/-specificity]. The acceptance rate of null direct object clitics was significantly higher among Generation 1 and 2 speakers than among those of Generation 3 and 4, with no effect of definiteness or specificity. In the second study, based on an elicitation task, older speakers (Generation 1 and 2) produced significantly more null direct object clitics than their younger counterparts (Generation 3 and 4). By contrasting the differential behavior of the participants across and within the same generation, it is shown that the generational effects observed are mainly due to the participants’ different levels of formal education.

Object clitic use and intuition in the Spanish of heritage speakers from Brazil

The present study examines the production and intuition of Spanish clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) structures among 26 Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) born and raised in Brazil. We tested clitic production and intuition in contexts in which Spanish clitics vary as a function of the semantic features of the object that they refer to. Results showed overextension of object clitics into contexts in which null objects were expected. Furthermore, we found higher levels of overextension among the HSs with lower patterns of heritage language use. Results are discussed along the lines of the model of heritage language acquisition and maintenance.

An Empirical Study of Type-Related Defects in Python Projects

In recent years, <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Python</monospace> has experienced an explosive growth in adoption, particularly among open source projects. While <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Python</monospace> 's dynamically-typed nature provides developers with powerful programming abstractions, that same dynamic type system allows for type-related defects to accumulate in code bases. To aid in the early detection of type-related defects, type annotations were introduced into the <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Python</monospace> ecosystem (i.e., PEP-484) and static type checkers like <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mypy</monospace> have appeared on the market. While applying a type checker like <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mypy</monospace> can in theory help to catch type-related defects before they impact users, little is known about the real impact of adopting a type checker to reveal defects in <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Python</monospace> projects. In this paper, we study the extent to which <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Python</monospace> projects benefit from such type checking features. For this purpose, we mine the issue tracking and version control repositories of 210 <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Python</monospace> projects on GitHub. Inspired by the work of Gao <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> on type-related defects in JavaScript, we add type annotations to test whether <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mypy</monospace> detects an error that would have helped developers to avoid real defects. We observe that 15 percent of the defects could have been prevented by <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mypy</monospace> . Moreover, we find that there is no significant difference between the experience level of developers committing type-related defects and the experience of developers committing defects that are not type-related. In addition, a manual analysis of the anti-patterns that most commonly lead to type-checking faults reveals that the redefinition of <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Python</monospace> references, dynamic attribute initialization and incorrectly handled Null objects are the most common causes of type-related faults. Since our study is conducted on fixed public defects that have gone through code reviews and multiple test cycles, these results represent a lower bound on the benefits of adopting a type checker. Therefore, we recommend incorporating a static type checker like <monospace xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mypy</monospace> into the development workflow, as not only will it prevent type-related defects but also mitigate certain anti-patterns during development.

Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous and early sequential acquisition: Null subjects and null objects in Polish-German bilingualism

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The topic of cross-linguistic influence regarding the overt or null expression of arguments has been frequently considered regarding bilinguals acquiring language pairs in which the null option is licensed by one and not both of the two languages. The goal of this study is to investigate whether simultaneous and sequential bilinguals differ from monolinguals in the case of the acquisition of Polish and German; that is, languages which both license null subjects and null objects, but in which the nature of the null arguments clearly differs. We focus on the acquisition of null arguments as silent but syntactically active bundles of features. Design/methodology/approach: We compare the use of null subjects and null objects by 72 bilingual and 45 monolingual children in experimental setting: acceptability judgement and sentence repetition. Data and analysis: The distribution of null arguments in production and judgement data of simultaneous and early sequential bilinguals was compared to the data of monolinguals. Findings/conclusions: The study has revealed that early sequential Polish-German bilinguals avoid null subjects in L2 German at an advanced stage of acquisition, even though null subjects are quite frequent in their L1. The slower acquisition of null subjects in early L2 German in comparison to null objects in the case of Polish-German bilinguals demonstrates that the dissimilarity between the null subjects in both languages may lead to the delay effect in the acquisition. The findings suggest that the cross-linguistic influence is due to the increased complexity inherent to the integration of syntactic and pragmatic information in case of null arguments. Originality: Unlike previous studies, we focus on the acquisition of null arguments in a language pair, Polish and German, in which the null option is licensed by both grammars, and in which the nature of the null arguments clearly differ.