Causative VP-omission in English
Richard Stockwell, Matthew Tyler
July 2023
 

New title: "Causative VP-omission, agency, and Null Complement Anaphora in English"

In English, the causation verbs make and let allow their following VP to be omitted; e.g. "I made/let Chris play the drums before I made/let Sam (play the drums)". We show that such ‘causative VP-omission’ involves Null Complement Anaphora rather than predicate ellipsis, and for most speakers requires an agentive causee. Examination of aspectual verbs suggests that the agent restriction extends to Null Complement Anaphora in general.

Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/006496
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: v2: submitted. v1: to appear in proceedings of NELS 52
keywords: syntax, english, causatives, null complement anaphora, ellipsis, voice, agency, syntax
previous versions: v2 [May 2022]
v1 [February 2022]
Downloaded:972 times

 

[ edit this article | back to article list ]