Elide me bare: Null arguments in American Sign Language

In this paper, I argue that the traditional analysis of null arguments—subjects and objects—in American Sign Language needs to be re-evaluated. It is typically assumed that in the absence of agreement, the null argument is either a topic-bound variable or a silent pronoun (pro). I introduce novel da...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNatural language and linguistic theory Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 397 - 446
Main Author Koulidobrova, Elena
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer 01.05.2017
Springer Netherlands
Subjects
Linguistics
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Philosophy of Language
Social Sciences
Ellipsis
Sign language
Null argument
Bare singular
Articles
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Summary:In this paper, I argue that the traditional analysis of null arguments—subjects and objects—in American Sign Language needs to be re-evaluated. It is typically assumed that in the absence of agreement, the null argument is either a topic-bound variable or a silent pronoun (pro). I introduce novel data that pose a problem for both of these views. As the null argument is subjected to a variety of diagnostics, I demonstrate that it is best analyzed as a case of ellipsis of a non-branching argument of the verb—a bare NP.
ISSN:0167-806X
1573-0859
DOI:10.1007/s11049-016-9349-5