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Main Author: Tian, Qilin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15168
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author Tian, Qilin
author_facet Tian, Qilin
contents According to Chomsky (1981, 1986), empty categories consist of PRO, pro, trace, and variable. However, some empty object positions seem to be incompatible with extant empty categories. Given this, Li (2007a, 2007b, 2014) and Li & Wei (2014) raise the true empty category hypothesis, which holds that true empty category is only an empty position with category and Case features. As a last resort option, it is used mainly to meet the subcatgorization of a verb. This assumption is ingenious, and if proved to be true, it will exert a great impact on the study of UG. In this paper, we evaluate their evidence from topicalization and demonstrate that it can be accounted for without invoking true empty category.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_15168
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On true empty category
Tian, Qilin
Computation and Language
According to Chomsky (1981, 1986), empty categories consist of PRO, pro, trace, and variable. However, some empty object positions seem to be incompatible with extant empty categories. Given this, Li (2007a, 2007b, 2014) and Li & Wei (2014) raise the true empty category hypothesis, which holds that true empty category is only an empty position with category and Case features. As a last resort option, it is used mainly to meet the subcatgorization of a verb. This assumption is ingenious, and if proved to be true, it will exert a great impact on the study of UG. In this paper, we evaluate their evidence from topicalization and demonstrate that it can be accounted for without invoking true empty category.
title On true empty category
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15168