"Theoretical linguistics in the generative tradition has payed much attention to issues related to silence - children know the syntax of silence despite the fact that they do not have direct access to it throughout their language acquisition process. One of the issues that have been hotly discussed regarding silence in natural languages is whether it involves syntactic structure or not. This book is concerned with a particular instance of silence in natural languages, what is called radical pro-drop, showing that it is silently structured on the basis of novel data from Japanese as well as Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, and Turkish. The discussion in this book also has consequences for the dichotomy between PF-deletion vs. LF-copying, shedding a new light on the proper analysis of several syntactic phenomena in Japanese, including wh-in-situ and control"--.

• Silently Structured Silent Argument
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• List of tables
• List of abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 Escapable from silence?
  • 1.2 Outline of the book
• Chapter 2. Silent arguments as elliptic arguments
  • 2.1 Radical pro-drop
  • 2.2 Pronoun-based approach to radical pro-drop
    • 2.2.1 Pronominal nature of radical pro-drop and related issues
    • 2.2.2 Radical pro-drop as null indefinite pronoun
      • 2.2.2.1 Null bare noun
      • 2.2.2.2 Null counterpart of English one
    • 2.2.3 Interim summary
  • 2.3 Ellipsis-based approach to radical pro-drop
    • 2.3.1 Verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis and argument ellipsis
    • 2.3.2 Verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis versus argument ellipsis
      • 2.3.2.1 Ellipsis of subject
      • 2.3.2.2 Manner adverb
      • 2.3.2.3 The verb-identity requirement
  • 2.4 More arguments for argument ellipsis
    • 2.4.1 ‘Immobile’ element
    • 2.4.2 Complex predicate and anti-reconstruction
  • 2.5 Summary of the chapter
• Chapter 3. The silent syntax of silent arguments
  • 3.1 Diagnosing anaphora
  • 3.2 Overt extraction out of Japanese null arguments
    • 3.2.1 Long-distance scrambling
    • 3.2.2 Pseudoraising and raising-to-object
    • 3.2.3 PP left-branch extraction
    • 3.2.4 Interim summary
  • 3.3 Covert extraction out of Japanese null arguments
    • 3.3.1 Null operator movement
    • 3.3.2 Quantifier raising
    • 3.3.3 Covert possessor raising
      • 3.3.3.1 Inalienable possessor raising
      • 3.3.3.2 Possessor raising idiom
  • 3.4 Summary of the chapter and implications for pro and verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis
    • Appendix: Overt clausal proform soo ‘so’
• Chapter 4. Cross-linguistic investigations into silent arguments
  • 4.1 Argument ellipsis in Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, and Turkish
    • 4.1.1 Background
      • 4.1.1.1 Null arguments in Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, and Turkish
      • 4.1.1.2 Argument for ellipsis I: Obviation of condition B
      • 4.1.1.3 Argument for ellipsis II: ‘Sloppy’ reading
    • 4.1.2 Verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis or argument ellipsis?
      • 4.1.2.1 Ellipsis of subject
      • 4.1.2.2 ‘Immobile’ element
      • 4.1.2.3 Manner adverb
      • 4.1.2.4 The verb-identity requirement
    • 4.1.3 Interim summary
  • 4.2 Overt extraction out of null arguments cross-linguistically
    • 4.2.1 Long-distance scrambling: Korean Mongolian, and Turkish
    • 4.2.2 ECM-movement: Korean, Mongolian, and Turkish
    • 4.2.3 Topicalization and superraising: Chinese
    • 4.2.4 Interim summary
  • 4.3 Covert extraction out of null arguments cross-linguistically
    • 4.3.1 Null operator movement
      • 4.3.1.1 Cleft and comparative deletion: Korean, Mongolian, and Turkish
      • 4.3.1.2 Relative clause: Chinese
    • 4.3.2 Scope-shifting movement
      • 4.3.2.1 Quantifier raising: Korean and Turkish
      • 4.3.2.2 A-not-A question: Chinese
  • 4.4 Summary of the chapter
  • Acknowledgments
• Chapter 5. Silent arguments = Overtly empty but covertly complex
  • 5.1 PF-deletion versus LF-copying
  • 5.2 Elliptic arguments via LF-copying
  • 5.3 Theoretical implications
    • 5.3.1 Null operator movement = LF-movement
      • 5.3.1.1 Chomsky (1995): Strong feature versus weak feature
      • 5.3.1.2 Subjacency
      • 5.3.1.3 Parasitic gap
    • 5.3.2 Against base-generation + merger
      • 5.3.2.1 Chung, Ladusaw and McCloskey (1995) and related issues
      • 5.3.2.2 Argument ellipsis and locality
      • 5.3.2.3 Argument ellipsis and absence of island-repair
    • 5.3.3 PF-deletion versus LF-copying revisited: A view from phases
  • 5.4 Consequences for other syntactic phenomena
    • 5.4.1 Case-marked cleft
    • 5.4.2 Split QP
    • 5.4.3 Control
    • 5.4.4 Wh-in-situ
  • 5.5 Summary of the chapter
    • Appendix: Wh-in-situ and null arguments cross-linguistically
• Chapter 6. Concluding remarks and additional issues
  • 6.1 Summary of the book
  • 6.2 When is argument ellipsis available?
• References
• Author index
• Subject index