Parasitic gap
In grammar, a parasitic gap is a construction wherein the dropping of an argument is dependent on a co-varying argument having been fronted in a local context.
[edit] Discovery
The phenomenon appears to have been discovered by John Robert Ross in the 1960s,[1] but remained undiscussed until papers by Knut Tarald Taraldsen and Elisabet Engdahl explored the properties of parasitic gaps in great depth. This work was extended by Noam Chomsky in 1982,[2] arguing that parasitic gaps are actually silent pronouns, licensed under particular conditions predicted by the general theory of grammar. Aspects of this analysis were developed in the framework of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) in the mid 1980s, and refined in the Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), done by Carl Pollard and Ivan Sag. More recent research by Chomsky and his student Jonathan Nissenbaum[3] has refined this view, arguing (in effect) that the pronouns themselves undergo a syntactic rule not unlike the rule that moves phrases like which book to the front of a sentence.
[edit] Example
An English example is:
- Which book did she review __ without reading __?
The key feature here is that both review and reading have a "gap" where their objects should be (indicated above with underscores), and both gaps appear to function as variables bound by which book; i.e. "Which book x did she review x without reading x?". The second gap is considered to be "parasitic" on the first, since it (unlike the first gap) cannot easily stand on its own, shown by the following example.
- *Which book did she review War and Peace without reading __.
This has the same structure as the first sentence but with a non-WH matrix object, which doesn't front.
Parasitic gaps are typically found in structures that would otherwise be islands to extraction, such as adjuncts as in the above example, or subjects, as in the following example (where the subject even supporters of __ hosts the parasitic gap licensed by the true gap following dislike). This example further shows that parasitic gaps need not follow their licensing gap.
- Which candidate do even supporters of __ tend to dislike __?
Parasitic gaps are an important topic of study in syntax, especially in the framework of generative grammar. It has been argued by some linguists working in generative frameworks that speakers' intuitive knowledge of the construction can only be explained by an innate universal grammar. The question of how these sentences should be analysed is still very much open.
[edit] References
- ^ Ross, John Robert (1967). Constraints on Variables in Syntax. MIT PhD dissertation.
- ^ Chomsky, Noam (1982). Some Concepts and Consequences of the Theory of Government and Binding. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph Six. MIT Press.
- ^ Jonathan Nissenbaum (2000). Investigations of Covert Phrase Movement. MIT PhD dissertation.
