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Missing objects in special registers: The syntax of null objects in English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2016

Marta Ruda
Marta Ruda*
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland
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Abstract

Even though null definite objects are usually ungrammatical in English, they are widely used in certain special registers. This paper investigates object drop in the recipe and, to a lesser extent, match broadcasting registers in English, contributing an analysis of a substantial set of naturally occuring data, hence making it possible to verify observations from previous syntactic studies of the phenomenon, which were based on a restricted array of isolated sentences. Having shown that the data support the assumption that the unrealised object is syntactically active, I propose a novel analysis of missing objects in special registers, guided by recent developments in the generative linguistic theory. Null realisation of the object is considered as an issue of externalisation and intralinguistic variation is attributed to the rules operating at the SM interface which make it possible to extend the application of copy deletion, as assumed within the copy theory of movement

Résumé

Résumé

Bien que les objets nuls dermis sont habituellement agrammaticaux en anglais, ils sont néanmoins couramment utilisés dans certains registres. Le but de cet article est d'analyser les objets nuls dans les recettes de cuisine, et d'une moindre mesure, dans les matchs retransmis dans les médias en anglais. Nos données sont done des données naturelles, ce qui nous permettra de vérifier dans un contexte naturel certaines observations faites dans la littérature syntaxique, qui étaient auparavant toujours des cas dans des phrases isolées. Après avoir montré que les objets nuls en question sont actifs syntaxiquement, je proposerai une nouvelle analyse selon laquelle la possibilité des objets nuls est une question d'externalisation et que la variation intralinguistique est due à des régies operant au niveau de 1'interface syntaxe-phonologie, une analyse qui rend possible l'extension de l'analyse de la suppression des copies dans la grammaire.

Keywords

null objectscopy deletioncomputational efficiencyminimalist syntaxrecipe and match broadcasting registersobjets nulssuppression des copiesefficacité computationnellesyntaxe minimalisteregistres des recettes de cuisine et des matchs diffusés dans les médias
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , November 2014 , pp. 339 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association. 2015

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