Volume 14
Graduate Working Papers

Argument Gapping in Coordinate Conjunction Constructions in Japanese

Yoshiteru Asano
University of Colorado Boulder

Keywords

  • syntax, semantics, japanese

How to Cite

Asano, Y. (1995). Argument Gapping in Coordinate Conjunction Constructions in Japanese. Colorado Research in Linguistics, 14. https://doi.org/10.25810/gr5s-e264

Abstract

When two clauses are conjoined by a coordinate conjunction (e.g. and), an argument of a verb in the second clause which corresponds to an argument of the verb in the first clause can be deleted. Traditionally, the condition for this phenomenon (ARGUMENT GAPPING) is recoverability of the deleted argument from the first clause. However, in Japanese, recoverability is not the sole condition affecting the gapping in coordinately conjoined clauses. Based on a data analysis including sentences with verbs of various patterns, it was found that verbs keep their marked (undeletable) arguments even when they are recoverable from the context.