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Serial Verbs and the Empty Category Principle in Krio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Dudley K. Nylander*
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba/Université de Grenoble

Extract

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).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1985

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