Null Object and Sloppy Identity in Japanese

1998/01/01 by Hajime Hoji · 3 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Categorization, perception, and language #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

paper · doi:10.1162/002438998553680

crossref issued 1998/01/01 · crossref published 1998/01/01 · crossref published-print 1998/01/01 · openalex publication_date 1998/01/01 · crossref created 2002/07/27 · crossref deposited 2021/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29

Abstract

I demonstrate that the null object construction (NOC) in Japanese cannot be analyzed on a par with VP-ellipsis (VPE) in English, contrary to the suggestion made in Huang 1988, 1991 and Otani and Whitman 1991. I argue that what are considered to be “sloppy identity readings” in these works are not genuine sloppy identity readings, and I argue that such readings arise quite independently of the alleged VPE status of the NOC.

Cited by

• Quantificational Null Objects and Argument Ellipsis
• On the Nonexistence of Verb-Stranding VP-Ellipsis
• Null Objects in Korean: Experimental Evidence for the Argument Ellipsis Analysis