Difference between revisions of "Empty categories"

Revision as of 12:57, 9 March 2011

Empty categories

• Traces

Extraction out of NP

Extraction out of empty ADJP

• Pied piping
• Missing copula

Empty subjects

Subjects elided under conjunction (Conjunction Reduction)

*con*: subjects elided under conjunction, by default.

• con*-D, *con*-A: oblique subjects elided under conjunction

• con*-N: nominative subjects elided under conjunction which are controlled by a previous oblique subject

Expletives

Expletives (*exp*): Note that (NP-SBJ *exp*) is not used in the Icelandic corpus for the experiencers of known quirky-case-verbs; see the documentation on Quirky Case. Note that in early (Old Icelandic) texts, it may be difficult to distinguish between *exp* and *pro* in cases where there is an empty subject and it has a roughly impersonal (i.e. "maður") interpretation. In searches where you want to include all such sentences or all impersonals in early texts, it is wise to include both *exp* and *pro* in your searches.

Arbitrary PRO

*arb*: arbitrary PRO in the IP-INF complements of inherent ECM verbs.

pro subject

*pro*: other empty subjects. Note that in early (Old Icelandic) texts, it may be difficult to distinguish between *exp* and *pro* in cases where there is an empty subject and it has a roughly impersonal (i.e. "maður") interpretation. In searches where you want to include all such sentences or all impersonals in early texts, it is wise to include both *exp* and *pro* in your searches.

Sometimes, it's ambiguous whether a quantifier is the subject of the clause or if it modifies a *pro* subject. Then the context may indicate the right parse.

( (IP-MAT (VBDI Sátu)
	  (ADVP-LOC (ADV þar))
	  (NP-SBJ (Q-N allar))
	  (PP (P um)
	      (ADJP (ADJ-A kyrt)))
	  (. ,-,)))

Topicalization or stylistic fronting of quantifiers (or other elements, e.g. D, N, P): indicated with *ICH* traces according to Penn Guidelines.

Empty objects of verbs: not indicated in annotation.

Empty objects of prepositions: in this case we follow the guidelines of the York Corpus of Old English Prose (YCOE). See also Particles under Head Types.

Empty oblique subject

A case extension is added to empty subjects if and only if the empty element is non-nominative. This can most frequently occur in cases of conjunction reduction, like *con*-D (empty dative subject), but also in other cases where the subject has been omitted, like *pro*-D.

( (IP-MAT (CONJ og-og)
	  (NP-SBJ *con*-D)
	  (VBDI þótti-þykja)
	  (NP-SBJ (N-N skömm-skömm))
	  (IP-INF (TO að-að)
		  (VB skilja-skilja)
		  (PP (P við-við)
		      (NP (PRO-A hann-hann))))
	  (. .-.)))

Parasitic Gaps

Parasitic gaps are marked with the same trace (same index) as the real gap on which they are parasitic, as in the example below:

	  (CP-QUE-SPE (IP-SUB-SPE (BEPI Er-vera)
				  (NP-SBJ (PRO-N það-það))
				  (NEG ekki-ekki)
				  (NP-PRD (D-N sá-sá)
					  (CP-REL-SPE (WNP-2 0)
						      (C sem-sem)
						      (IP-SUB-SPE (NP-OB1 *T*-2)
								  (NP-SBJ (PRO-N þeir-hann))
								  (VBDI sóktu-sækja)
								  (PP (P til-til)
								      (IP-INF-PRP-SPE (NP-OB1 *T*-2)
										      (TO að-að)
										      (VB lífláta-lífláta)
										      (CODE {COM:parasitic_gap}))))))))
	  (. ?-?))
  (ID 1540.NTJOHN.REL-BIB,200.545))

We frequently also put a comment in the token indicating that the gap is parasitic.

A generic empty category (X *)

Traces of A-movement are marked with an asterisk " * ", including all pseudo-passives.

BE *

We do not use (BE *) after a modal verb and before a participle (VAN or VBN):

	  (IP-MAT-SPE (NP-SBJ (Q-N Lítil-lítill) (N-N tilraun-tilraun))
		      (MDPI mun-munu)
		      (VAN birt-birta)
		      (PP (P til-til)
			  (NP (PRO-G þess-það))))