Elide me bare: Null arguments in ASL

: 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 presence of agreement, the null argument is a silent pronoun (pro), while with lack thereof, the null argument is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLingBuzz
Main Author Koulidobrova, elena
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Tromso Universitetet i Tromsoe 01.01.2013
Subjects
American Sign Language
Anaphora
Ellipsis
Noun phrases
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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 presence of agreement, the null argument is a silent pronoun (pro), while with lack thereof, the null argument is a topic-bound variable. I introduce novel data that pose a problem for the traditional view. As the null argument is subjected to a variety of diagnostics, I demonstrate that it is best analyzed as an instantiation of ‘surface anaphora’ – i.e., ellipsis of the bare NP argument of the verb.
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