Language Research 43, 203-227 (2007).

Notes on East Asian Argument Ellipsis*
Mamoru Saito
Nanzan University and University of Connecticut

1. Introduction
It is argued in S.-W. Kim 1999 that argument ellipsis is one of the distinguishedcharacteristics of East Asian languages. Oku (1998) proposed argument ellipsis for Japanese
independently, presenting examples such as the following to substantiate his claim:(1) a. Hanako-wa [ zibun-no

teian

-ga

saiyoosareru to ] omotte iru-TOP self -GEN proposal-NOM accepted-be that think‘Hanako thinks that her proposal will be accepted’b. Taroo-mo

[ ___

-also

saiyoosareru to ] omotte iru
accepted-be that think‘Taroo also thinks that her/his proposal will be accepted’
The missing embedded subject in (1b) can be construed either as Hanako’s proposal (strictreading) or Taroo’s (sloppy reading). The latter construal is unexpected if the position is
occupied by a null pronoun, pro, which is also attested in East Asian languages. As shown in(2), pronouns do not allow sloppy interpretation.
(2)

Taroo-mo-also[ sore-ga
itsaiyoosareru to ] omotte iru-NOM accepted-be that think‘Taroo also thinks that her proposal will be accepted’*

The material in this paper was presented at the Cambridge-Nanzan Joint Workshop, which washeld in Cambridge in May, 2007. I would like to thank the audience and Roger Martin for helpful
discussion, and Yoshiaki Kaneko and James Yoon for comments on the earlier version of the paper.

2

Oku (1998) concludes then that (1b) has a structure where zibin-no teian ‘self’s proposal’ iselided in the embedded subject position and presents an LF copying analysis. Further
arguments in support of this argument ellipsis hypothesis can be found, for example, in Saito
2004a and Takahashi 2006.
The main purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of Oku’s analysis. In
particular, I will try to relate argument ellipsis with two other properties of East Asian
languages; radical pro-drop and the absence of overt agreement. I will argue that the presenceof DP argument ellipsis implies the absence of agreement, as conceived, for example, in
Chomsky 2000. This conclusion, in turn, necessitates the reconsideration of Case licensing in
East Asian languages, as it cannot be a reflex of agreement. I will also suggest that radical
pro-drop is a kind of argument ellipsis. The basic idea is that argument ellipsis is possible inthose languages because they allow LF copying of linguistics objects provided by thediscourse, including pro.1
In the following section, I will briefly discuss Hoji’s (1998) influential pro analysis of therelevant phenomenon, and show that we still have a strong case for argument ellipsis. In
Section 3, I will consider Shinohara’s (2006) supporting evidence for Oku’s LF copying
analysis. The main evidence is that a CP containing a trace of scrambling cannot be elided. I
will present her data and an updated version of her analysis due to Kensuke Takita. Then, in
Section 4, I will examine the mechanism of LF copying in more detail. I will argue that it
introduces LF objects already constructed in the preceding discourse into the derivation of a
new sentence, and hence, that the copied objects lack uninterpretable features. This implies
that they cannot participate in agreement, given Chomsky’s (2000) activation condition. It
follows that LF copying of DP arguments is possible only in languages without forced
agreement in the sense of Kuroda 1988. In Section 5, I will present a piece of suggestive
evidence, based on the distribution of genitive subjects in Japanese, that radical pro-drop
involves LF copying of discourse pro. This leads to a speculation that argument ellipsis andradical pro-drop arise from the same source. Section 6 concludes the paper.

1

I will consider Japanese data throughout this paper on the assumption that the analysis extends toother East Asian languages. It should be noted, however, that the argument ellipsis hypothesis is notquite established for Chinese. The generalization to all East Asian languages is, in this sense, stilltentative. See Xu 1986 and Huang 1987 for relevant discussion on Chinese.

3

2. Ellipsis or pro?
S.-W. Kim (1999) and Oku’s (1998) argument ellipsis hypothesis developed out of Otani
and Whitman’s (1991) VP-deletion analysis of examples such as (3).
(3)

Hanako-wa zibun-no

koppu-omitte kita; Taroo-mo ___-TOP self -GEN glass -ACC brought-alsomotte kita
brought‘Hanako brought her glass, and Taroo also brought her/his glass’
They observe that the second sentence of (3) allows sloppy interpretation, and propose to
explain this with a VP-deletion analysis illustrated in (4).
(4)

TP
NP

T’
VP

DP

T
V

The verb raises to T by hypothesis, and consequently VP ellipsis yields the deletion only ofthe object DP.2 S.-W. Kim and Oku both point out examples that are similar to (3) but cannot
be analyzed in terms of VP-deletion, such as (1), and propose that DP arguments can beelided.
Hoji 1998 is a detailed critique of Otani and Whitman 1991. He first presents examples
that do not allow sloppy interpretation, contrary to the predictions of the VP-deletion analysis.
As far as I can see, the clearest is the one shown in (5).
(5) a.

Subete-noallnihonzin huuhu -ga

betubetu-no

gakusei-osuisensita-GEN Japanese couple-NOM different-GEN student -ACC recommended‘Every Japanese couple recommended different students’b. Subete-noallamerikazin huuhu -mo-GEN American couple-also___suisensita
recommended‘Every American couple also recommended (them)’
2

This analysis closely follows Huang’s (1987) proposal for similar examples in Chinese.

4(5a) allows the reading that (for each couple) the husband and wife recommended different
students. However, this interpretation is difficult to obtain in (5b), where the object is missing.
Note that the parallel English example with VP-deletion allows the relevant reading, as shownin (6).
(6)

Every Japanese couple recommended different students; and every American
Couple did ___, too

Thus, (5b) seems problematic for Otani and Whitman’s VP-deletion analysis, as Hoji points
out. This carries over to the argument ellipsis hypothesis because it also predicts theavailability of the relevant reading for (5b).
Hoji (1998), then, suggests alternative accounts for what he calls the ‘sloppy-like’readings observed with examples such as (3). His conclusion is that all the relevant examples
involve pro and not ellipsis. For example, he suggests that an indefinite pro occupies theobject position of (7b).
(7) a.

Subete-noallitinenseii-gasoitui-nobooru-oketta-GEN first-grader-NOM that guy-GEN ball -ACC kicked‘All first-graders kicked their own balls’
b. Subete-noallninensei-mo___ ketta-GEN second-grader-also

kicked‘All second-graders also kicked their own balls’
As indicated, sloppy reading is possible with (7b). Hoji points out that if pro can stand for anindefinite argument, then (7b) can be interpreted as (8) with an indefinite pro.
(8)

Subete-noallninensei-mobooru-oketta-GEN second-grader-also ball -ACC kicked‘All second-graders also kicked balls’
This sentence does not mean that ‘all second-graders kicked their own balls’, but is consistent
with the situation. That is, one can truthfully say that ‘all second-graders kicked balls’ when

5each of them kicked his or her own ball. Hoji suggests then that (7b) appears to allow sloppy
interpretation because it is an appropriate sentence to express the situation.
Hoji 1998 contains illuminating discussion, but as far as I can see, his arguments against
the ellipsis analysis are not at all conclusive. First, the indefinite pro analysis of (7b) makes awrong prediction as soon as the sentence is negated. Consider (9) for example.
(9) a.

Sensei -wa

subete-noteacher-TOP allitinenseii -ni

zibuni-no

booru-okeraseta-GEN first-grader-DAT self -GEN ball -ACC kick-made‘The teacher let all first-graders kick their own balls’
b. Demo, ninensei
but

-ni

-wa

second-grader-DAT-TOP___ kerasenakatta
kick-make-did not‘But she/he did not let the second-graders kick their own balls’
Again, (9b) has sloppy interpretation, as indicated. That is, the sentence is appropriate in thesituation where the teacher did let the second-graders kick balls but just did not allow them to
use their own. In this situation, an indefinite pro fails to serve the purpose because (10)simply means that the teacher did not let the second-graders kick balls at all.

(10)

Demo, ninensei
but

-ni

-wa

booru-okerasenakatta

second-grader-DAT-TOP ball -ACC kick-make-did not‘But she/he did not let the second-graders kick balls’

It is thus dubious that the sloppy reading arises because of indefinite pro in examples like (7b)and (9b). The argument ellipsis hypothesis, on the other hand, predicts the sloppy
interpretation of (9b) as well as (7b) straightforwardly.
Aside from this problem, Hoji’s (1998) approach raises an issue on how far we canstretch the possible interpretation of pro. It is already non-standard to assume that pro can beconstrued as indefinite. If pro is simply a pronoun without phonetic content, we would expect
it to be definite in interpretation.3 In addition, Shinohara (2004) presents examples such as(11) and (12), which seem difficult, if not impossible, to analyze with pro.
3

But see Jaeggli 1986 and Rizzi 1986 for limited cases where pronouns, overt or empty, receive‘arbitrary’ interpretation.

6

(11)

Ano ryokan-wa iti -niti -ni okyaku-othat inn

san -kumi -izyoo

tomeru ga,-TOP one-day-in guest -ACC three-group-more than let-stay thoughkono ryokan-wa ___tomenaithis inn

let-stay-not-TOP‘That inn takes more than three groups of guests per day, but this inn does not’

(12)

Sono toki, Taroo-wa nanika
that time

katta

ga,

Hanako-wa ___ kawanakatta-TOP something bought though-TOPbought-not‘At that time, Taroo bought something, but Hanako did not (buy anything)’

If pro occupies the null object positions in these examples, it would have to stand for thequantified argument, okyaku-o san-kumi-izyoo ‘more than three groups of guests’, in (11) andfor the negative polarity item, nanimo ‘anything’, in (12).4 Given examples like these, it isdifficult to reject argument ellipsis in favor of the pro analysis. As far as I know, there is no
language that allows a pronoun in place of a quantified DP or a negative polarity item. In thiscase also, the argument ellipsis hypothesis accounts for the data without any stipulation.
The discussion above, I believe, has shown that the ellipsis analysis covers a wide rangeof data and has a firm empirical basis. Hoji’s (1998) example in (5), repeated below as (13),remains problematic.

(13) a. Subete-noallnihonzin huuhu -ga

betubetu-no

gakusei-osuisensita-GEN Japanese couple-NOM different-GEN student -ACC recommended‘Every Japanese couple recommended different students’4

Note that (12) has implications for the analysis of negative polarity items. Similar examples are

possible in English with VP-deletion.
(i) a.
b.

John bought something, but Mary did not (= Mary did not buy anything)John did not buy anything, but Mary did (= Mary bought something)

Examples such as these indicate that anything is not a wide scope universal, but a morphologicalvariant of the indefinite something. (12) shows that the same is true of its Japanese counterpart
nanimo.

7b. Subete-noallamerikazin huuhu -mo___ suisensita-GEN American couple-also

recommended‘Every American couple also recommended (them)’

But I suspect that the unavailability of the relevant reading has to do with the quantificationalor focal nature of the elided item betubetu-no gakusei ‘different students’. The following
illicit examples of gapping, indeed, indicate that verbs cannot be elided when they arefocused:(14) a. *John even threw the dishes, and Mary ___ the glasses
b. *John never ate pizza, and Mary ___ sushi

If (13) can be accounted for along this line, even this problem disappears.

3. The LF Copying Analysis of Argument Ellipsis
Having confirmed the plausibility of the argument ellipsis hypothesis, I would like to turnto the analysis. As noted at the outset of this paper, Oku (1998) proposes to analyze thephenomenon with LF copying, which he considers a covert application of Merge. According
to this analysis, the embedded subject is absent in (14b) (= (1b)) in the overt syntax.
(14) a.

Hanako-wa [ zibun-no

teian

-ga

saiyoosareru to ] omotte iru-TOP self -GEN proposal-NOM accepted-be that think‘Hanako thinks that her proposal will be accepted’b.

Taroo-mo
-also

[ ___

saiyoosareru to ] omotte iru
accepted-be that think‘Taroo also thinks that her/his proposal will be accepted’Then in LF, the antecedent zibun-no teian ‘self’s proposal’ in (14a) (= (1a)) is merged withthe embedded clause of (14b) and becomes the subject.5 Shinohara (2006) examines this5Note that this analysis is not necessarily inconsistent with the EPP requirement of T. If overt and8analysis and presents an argument for it based on the interaction of scrambling and argument
ellipsis. In what follows, I will discuss her data and a modified version of her argument.
Shinohara first notes that argument ellipsis applies, as expected, to complement CPs.
Thus, the embedded CPs in the second conjuncts of (15a-b) can be elided.
(15) a.

Hanako-wa [CP zibun-no
-TOP

teian

-ga

saiyoosareru to] omotte iru ga,

self -GEN proposal-NOM accepted-be that think

Taroo-wa________

thoughomotte inai-TOPthink not‘Hanako thinks that her proposal will be accepted, but Taroo does not think that
her/his proposal will be accepted’b.

Taroo-ga[CP Hanako-ga-NOM
Ziroo-mohon -okatta

to] itta si,-NOM book-ACC bought that said and________

-too

itta
said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought a book, and Ziroo also said that she bought abook’
Then, she observes that this type of CP ellipsis becomes illicit when a phrase is scrambled outof the relevant CP. This is shown in (16).
(16) *Hon -oi

Taroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga

book-ACC

-TOP

zassi

Ziroo-wa-ojmagazine-ACC

ti katta

to] itta ga,-NOM bought that said though________

-TOP

itta
said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought a book, but Ziroo said that she bought amagazine’(17) shows that examples of this kind remain ungrammatical even when the scrambled
phrases are identical in the two conjuncts.

covert operations are “interwoven,” as proposed, for example, by Bobaljik (1995) and Nissenbaum(2000), then zibun-no teian ‘self’s proposal’ can be merged covertly as the embedded TP/CP of (14b)is constructed, and check the EPP feature of the embedded T.

9(17) * Sono hon -oi

Taroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga

that book-ACC
sono hon -oj-TOPZiroo-mothat book-ACC

ti katta

to] itta si,-NOM bought that said and________

-also

itta
said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought that book, and Ziroo also said that she boughtthat book’
Shinohara argues that this state of affairs is unexpected if argument ellipsis is derived by
PF deletion. First, the PF deletion operation would apply to a CP that is identical to its
antecedent in both (16) and (17). (18) illustrates this for (17).
(18) * Sono hon -oi

Taroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga

that book-ACC
sono hon -oj

-TOP
-also

to] itta si,-NOM bought that said andZiroo-mo [CP Hanako-ga

that book-ACC

ti katta

tj katta to] itta

-NOM

bought that said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought that book, and Ziroo also said that she boughtthat book’
Further, the presence of a trace within the CP should not be the cause of the ungrammaticality
because we know that constituents that contain traces can be elided. In fact, typical examples
of sluicing involve ellipsis of TP with a Wh-trace, as in (19).
(19)

He bought something, but I don’t know what (= [CP whati [TP he bought ti]])Thus, the ungrammaticality of (16) and (17) is puzzling under the PF deletion analysis. On theother hand, it is predicted, Shinohara argues, if argument ellipsis involves LF copying.6 I will
present an updated version of the LF copying analysis of (16) and (17), due to Kensuke Takita,
in the remainder of this section.
Suppose that the second conjuncts of (16) and (17) are interpreted by LF copying.
Suppose further, as seems plausible, that what is copied at the ellipsis sites is an LF object, or
6Shinohara’s (2006) conclusion is that argument ellipsis involves LF copying while sluicing isderived by PF deletion as argued by Merchant (2000) and others. I will focus on argument ellipsis in
this paper, and will not discuss whether Shinahara’s argument provides indirect support for the LF
copying analysis of other types of ellipsis.

10

more precisely, an object that syntax transfers to semantics. Given these, let us examine theantecedent clause in (17) more closely. Its spell-out form is as indicated and repeated in (20).
(20)

Sono hon -oi

Taroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga

that book-ACC-TOP

ti katta

to] itta-NOM bought that said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought that book’
But what is its LF representation?
It is argued in Saito 1989 and Tada 1993 that scrambling need not affect interpretationand that a phrase preposed by scrambling is placed back at its initial site at LF.7 One piece ofevidence given in Saito 1989 is (21).
(21) a. [TP Taroo-ga[CP [TP Hanako-ga-NOMdono hon -oyonda] ka] siritagatte iru]

-NOM which book-ACC readQ know-want(koto)
fact‘(the fact that) Taroo wants to know which book Hanako read’b. [TP Dono hon -oi [Taroo-ga [CP [TP Hanako-ga
which book-ACC-NOM

ti yonda] ka] siritagatte iru]]-NOM readQ know-want(koto)
fact(21a) is a straightforward example that contains an embedded question. The Wh-phrase donohon ‘which book’ is in the embedded object position and takes scope at the embedded CP. In(21b), on the other hand, the Wh-phrase is scrambled out of the embedded CP to the initial
position of the matrix clause. If the Wh-phrase stays at its surface position at LF, we expect
the example to be ungrammatical because it is known on independent grounds that a Whphrase must be contained within the CP where it takes scope. The generalization is illustrated
by the ungrammatical example in (22).

7

I will assume this simplified version of ‘radical reconstruction’ because the precise mechanism

need not concern us here. See, for example, Saito 2005 for an analysis that assumes cyclic
interpretation.

11(22) *[TP Dare-ga[CP [TP Hanako-ga-NOM

sono hon -oyonda] ka] siritagatte iru]

-NOM that book-ACC readQ know-want(koto)
fact‘*(the fact that) who wants to know Hanako read that book’
Yet, (21b) is grammatical. And the grammaticality can be accounted for if the scrambled Whphrase is placed back at its initial site in LF. According to this analysis, the LF representationof (21b) is identical to that of (21a).
If scrambling is subject to total reconstruction as illustrated above, the LF representationof (20) is as in (23) with the scrambled phrase back in the embedded object position.
(23)

Taroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga-TOPsono hon -okattato] itta-NOM that book-ACC bought that said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought that book’Then, when the embedded CP is copied into the ellipsis site of (17), the second conjunct will
be as in (24).
(24) *Sono hon -o

Ziroo-mo [CP Hanako-ga

that book-ACC-also

sono hon -okatta to] itta

-NOM that book-ACC bought that said

‘Ziroo also said that Hanako bought that book’
This is clearly ungrammatical as it contains two instances of the embedded object. Similarly,
the LF copying operation will yield the ungrammatical (25) for (16).
(25) *Zassi-omagazine-ACC

Ziroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga-TOPhon -okatta to] itta

-NOM book-ACC bought that said

‘Ziroo said that Hanako bought a magazine/a book’
The LF copying analysis, thus, predicts the ungrammaticality of (16) and (17) correctly.
The analysis also successfully accounts for another important piece of data discussed by
Shinohara (2006). That is, (17) is grammatical without scrambling in the second conjunct, asshown in (26).

12

(26)

Sono hon -oi

Taroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga

that book-ACC
Ziroo-mo-TOP________-also

ti katta

to] itta si,-NOM bought that said and

itta
said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought that book, and Ziroo also said that she bought thatbook’This may appear surprising because the elided CP does not seem identical to its antecedent on
the surface. However, since the LF representation of the first conjunct is as in (23), we obtainproper interpretation by copying the embedded CP of this conjunct into the ellipsis site at LF,
as shown in (27).
(27)

Sono hon -oi
that book-ACC

Taroo-wa [CP Hanako-ga-TOP

Ziroo-mo [CP Hanako-ga-also

ti katta

to] itta si,-NOM bought that said andsono hon -okatta to] itta

-NOM that book-ACC bought that said

‘Taroo said that Hanako bought that book, and Ziroo also said that she bought thatbook’
It was shown in this section that examples such as (16)-(17) and (26) constitute evidence
for the LF copying analysis of argument ellipsis. In the following section, I will argue that
this analysis implies the absence of obligatory agreement. That is, LF copying of an argument
DP is possible only in languages without agreement in the usual sense. This seems to capturea significant correlation as argument ellipsis is proposed for East Asian languages, which are
known also for the total absence of overt agreement phenomenon.
4. Kuroda’s (1988) Agreement Parameter and the Activation Condition on Agree
Kuroda (1988) proposes that one of the main differences between English and Japanese is
the presence vs. absence of obligatory agreement. It is simply a fact that Japanese lacks overt
agreement. But what Kuroda proposes is that although agreement relation is present in bothlanguages, it is obligatory and 1-1 in English while it is optional and can be many-1 in
Japanese. Among the phenomena in Japanese that he attempts to explain with this parameterare the multiple subject construction and A-scrambling, which he considers to be movementof the object to TP Spec. Without committing myself to Kuroda’s specific analysis of these13

phenomena, I will argue in this section that the LF copying analysis of argument ellipsis
provides support for his main idea that agreement is obligatory in English but not in Japanese.
It is a widely accepted assumption that agreement is closely tied with Case. Chomsky(2000), for example, maintains that agreement is a probe-goal relation roughly as in (28).8(28) a.

A set of uninterpretable f-features on a functional head (= T or v) searches fora matching f-set in its domain. (A probe searching for a goal.)b.

The operation is implemented by uninterpretable features. In particular, thegoal must have an uninterpretable Case feature.

c.

The matching of f-feature sets is agreement, and it induces the deletion of theprobe and the Case feature of the goal.

Let us consider the case of object agreement in (29) as an example.
(29)

vP
v
[f-features]

VP
V

DP
[f-features, Case feature]

The f-features of v are uninterpretable, and they agree with those of the object DP. The object
qualifies as a goal because it has an uninterpretable Case feature though its f-features areinterpretable. The agreement relation results in the deletion of the uninterpretable f-featureson v and the uninterpretable Case feature of the DP.
(28b), called the ‘activation condition’, derives part of Burzio’s (1986) generalization,
which states that a verb assigns an external q-role if and only if it assigns objective Case. A
relevant case is the classical Last Resort violation as in (30).
movement(30) *DPi Tv V tiCase

8

The system of Chomsky 2000 is chosen here for the ease of exposition. The choice is not crucial,

as far as I can see.

14

If the Case feature of the DP is deleted in the object position through agreement with v, thenits f-features can no longer be the goal for those of T because of the activation condition.
Consequently, the EPP-feature of T fails to raise the DP to its specifier position.
If the agreement operation illustrated above is obligatory, argument DP ellipsis should be
impossible. Let us consider the concrete examples in (31) to illustrate this point.
(31) a.

John brought [DP his friend]b. *But Bill did not bring ___The object DP his friend of (31a) must be copied into the object position of (31b) at LF forthe latter sentence to be properly interpreted. Suppose then that LF copying is an available
option universally and can be applied in English as well. However, one of the crucial
assumptions in the analysis of the Japanese (16)-(17) and (26) above was that only LF objects
can be employed in LF copying. The ungrammaticality of (16)-(17) as well as thegrammaticality of (26) in fact constitute strong evidence for this assumption. Then, his friend
must be copied into (31b) from the LF representation of (31a). But, this DP has alreadyagreed with its v in (31a) and hence, its uninterpretable Case feature is deleted. This implies
that it does not qualify as a goal in the required agree relation in (31b). Consequently, v is left
with its uninterpretable f-features in (31b) and the derivation crashes.
The same conclusion should hold for Japanese if the agree operation in (28) applies in thelanguage. But the Japanese counterpart of (31) is grammatical as shown in (32).
(32) a.

Taroo-wa [DP zibun-no-TOP

tomodati-o]self -GEN friend

turete kita

-ACC brought‘Taroo brought his friend’b.

Demo Hanako-wa
but

-TOP

_____

turete konakatta
brought-not‘But Hanako did not bring her friend’
The object DP zibun-no tomodati ‘self’s friend’ in (32a) must lack uninterpretable features inthe LF representation for otherwise the example should be ungrammatical. Hence, when it iscopied into the object position in (32b) as in (33), it cannot participate in agreement as a goal
and cause the deletion of the uninterpretable f-features on v.

15

(33)

Demo Hanako-wa [DP zibun-no
but

-TOP

tomodati-o]self -GEN friend

turete konakatta-ACC brought-not‘But Hanako did not bring her friend’Then, the grammaticality of (32b) indicates that the v in this example lacks uninterpretable ffeatures to begin with. This implies that v in Japanese need not have f-features, whichamounts to saying that object agreement is not obligatory in the language. Thus, even if LF
copying is an operation that is available in any language, Kuroda’s (1988) agreement
parameter correctly predicts the absence of argument DP ellipsis in English as well as its
presence in Japanese.9
Before I conclude this section, I would like to present one piece of evidence that thoseDP arguments that are copied into ellipsis sites in Japanese indeed lack Case features thatneed to be deleted. As pointed out by Oku (1998), argument ellipsis does not require “Casematching” between the elided argument and its antecedent. Let us first consider thegrammatical examples in (34).
(34) a.

Taroo-wa[DP zibun-no-TOP
Hanako-wa

hahaoya-o]tazune,self -GEN mother -ACC visit
___

-TOP

denwa-osita

phone -ACC did‘Taroo visited his mother, and Hanako called her mother’b.

Taroo-wa [DP zibun-no-TOP
Hanako-wa-TOPhahaoya-ni]

atta ga,

self -GEN mother -DAT met though___oikaesitachased-away‘Taroo met his mother, but Hanako chased her mother away’
After LF copying, the second conjunct of (34a) will be as in (35).
(35) Hanako-wa [DP zibun-no hahaoya-o]9denwa-osita

Here, the discussion is confined to DP ellipsis. Whether this account in terms of the obligatorinessof agreement can be extended to CP and PP arguments remains to be seen. I will come back to thisbriefly in Section 6.

16

However, dative but not accusative is licensed in the copied position as shown in (36).
(36)

Hanako-wa zibun-no

hahaoya-ni/*-odenwa-osita-TOP self -GEN mother -DAT -ACC phone -ACC did‘Hanako called her mother’
Similarly, LF copying yields (37) for (34b), which also shows “Case mismatch.”(37)

Hanako-wa [DP zibun-no-TOPhahaoya-ni]

oikaesita

self -GEN mother -DAT chased-away‘Hanako chased her mother away’
Dative Case is not licensed in the complement position of the verb oikaes ‘chase away’, asshown in (38).
(38)

Hanako-wa zibun-no

hahaoya-o/*-nioikaesita-TOP self -GEN mother -ACC -DAT chased-away‘Hanako chased her mother away’
The grammaticality of (34a-b) shows then that there is no need to license Case after a DP iscopied into an ellipsis site. For example, if zibun-no hahaoya-ni ‘self’s mother-DAT’ in (34b)
is introduced into the first conjunct with an uninterpretable dative Case feature, the featuremust have already been checked and deleted by the time the DP is copied into the second
conjunct in LF. Thus, the examples of “Case mismatch” in (34) indicate that copied DPs
indeed lack uninterpretable Case features.
The fact noted above reinforces the earlier discussion where it was claimed that DPs thatare copied at ellipsis sites cannot participate in agreement because of the activation condition.
At the same time, it raises a question concerning the licensing of Case in Japanese. If Case isan uniterpretable feature in Japanese, as it seems to be, then how is it deleted in thederivation? The discussion so far indicates that even if overt DPs in Japanese are introduced
into derivations with uninterpretable Case features, the main role of those features is not toaccommodate agreement and further, that those features are not deleted through agreement.
This is so because if Case is tied to agreement as in (28) and agreement is optional in
Japanese, then the presence of Case should also be optional in this language. However, Caseis a necessary feature of overt DPs in Japanese as much as it is in obligatory agreement

17

languages. Case, then, must be serving quite a different role in Japanese.
Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to examine the Japanese Case system, I
would like to note one possibility. First, nominative and genitive in Japanese may becontextual Cases as suggested in Saito 1982. Suppose that the nominative Case feature ischecked and deleted when the DP is merged with a projection of T. Then, it is not surprisingthat the language allows multiple subjects as in the examples below from Kuno 1973.
(39) a.

Yama-gaki -gakirei -damountain-NOM tree-NOM pretty-is‘It is in the mountains that trees are pretty’b.

Bunmeikoku-gadansei-ga

heikinzyumyoo -ga

mizikai

Civilized country-NOM male -NOM average life span-NOM short‘It is in civilized countries that the male population has a short life-span’
Similarly, if genitive Case is checked and deleted within the (extended) projection of N,
multiple genitive should also be possible as in (40).
(40)

kyonen -no
last year-GEN

Hanako-no-GEN

Taroo-nohihan-GEN criticism‘Hanako’s criticism of Taroo last year’
On the other hand, dative and accusative may be inherent Cases, closely tied with q-role
assignment, as suggested in Kikuchi and Takahashi 1991. Then, they are checked and deleted
by lexical heads such as V.
The Case system just sketched is consistent with the discussion in this section as it isindependent of agreement. Needless to say, further research is required before it is concluded
that this kind of Case system can be maintained for Japanese and other East Asian languages.
5. A Speculation on Radical Pro-drop
If the discussion in the preceding section is on the right track, then East Asian languages
allow argument DP ellipsis at least in part because agreement is not obligatory (or possibly
totally absent). As noted above, this is consistent with the fact that these languages lack overt
agreement altogether. Another characteristic of these languages that is often tied with the18absence of overt agreement is radical pro-drop. It is widely assumed that pro is licensed byrich agreement, for example, in the subject position of a finite clause in Italian and Spanish.
At the same time, it has been observed that pro appears rather freely in argument positions inEast Asian languages despite the fact that they lack overt agreement. The generalization thenseems somewhat paradoxical: either rich or no agreement licenses pro.
If radical pro-drop is in fact possible because of the absence (or non-obligatoriness) ofagreement, it is tempting to relate this phenomenon to argument ellipsis. One possibility isthat pro, without Case feature, is always available for LF copying in any language. The
analysis of argument ellipsis presented above relies on the idea that a derivation can use LF
objects that are constructed in the preceding discourse. This implies that aside from objects inthe numeration, taken from the Lexicon, there is a set of LF objects, given by the discourse,that can be employed in a derivation.10 It is conceivable then that pro, being a typical
discourse entity, is always included in this set. This discourse pro lacks an uninterpretable
Case feature, and hence fails to take part in an agreement relation. Then, it can be copied into
a DP argument position only in languages that do not require agreement.
The possibility just mentioned implies that pro in East Asian languages is quite different
from its counterpart in Italian and Spanish, where agreement is obligatory. The latter is
included in the numeration with an uninterpretable Case feature, and enters the derivation
exactly like overt lexical items. The former, on the other hand, originates in the discourse andis introduced into the derivation by LF copying. Although this is still very much a speculation,
there is some evidence indicating that it may not be far from the truth. First, the distribution ofgenitive subjects in Japanese shows that discourse pro need not have its Case licensed, andhence that it lacks an uninterpretable Case feature. Secondly, the distributions of argument
ellipsis and radical pro-drop seem identical if we abstract away from the differences that arise
from the properties of ellipsis and pronouns; the former requires a linguistic antecedent andallows sloppy interpretation whereas the latter received definite interpretation. I will discussthese in turn in the remainder of this section.
It has been known that subjects in Japanese sentences can be marked genitive instead of
nominative in limited environments, typically in prenominal sentential modifiers. Thus, agenitive subject is allowed in (41a), but not in (41b).

10

If covert operations are by definition those operations that do not involve the introduction or

displacement of phonetic features, those LF objects are subject only to covert Merge (LF copying).
See Footnote 5 above for relevant discussion.

19(41) a.

[ Taroo-ga/-noitta ] tokoro-NOM/-GEN went place‘the place where Taroo went’b.

Taroo-ga/*-nosoko -e itta

-NOM/ -GEN there-to went
‘Taro went there’
Interestingly, as discussed by Harada (1971), Watanabe (1996), and Hiraiwa (2000), among
others, this genitive subject is impossible when an accusative object appears between thesubject and the verb. (42) is ungrammatical despite the fact that the genitive subject appears ina prenominal sentential modifier.11(42) *[ Taroo-no

hon -okatta ] mise-GEN book-ACC bought shop‘the shop where Taroo bought a book’Hiraiwa (2000) argues that the genitive subject in examples like (41a) is licensed because
the adnominal T, as opposed to its declarative counterpart, is capable of checking genitive as
well as nominative Case. He then proposes (43) to account for the intervention effect induced
by an accusative DP.12(43)

Spell-out of morphological accusative case by v triggers nominative Casechecking on T in the next strong phase.

Slightly modifying this, I proposed in Saito 2001 that the genitive-licensing adnominal T
blocks the checking of accusative Case on the object. Without going into the specifics of the
proposal, I simply note here that it is consistent with the data in (44).

11

Harada (1971) notes that an idiolectal variation is observed here. According to him, some speakers

accept (42) but others do not. As far as I know, the variation concerns the degree of ungrammaticality
and is not as clear-cut as Harada suggests.
12

It will be clear directly why Hiraiwa refers to ‘spell-out of morphological accusative case’ in (43).

20(44) a. [ Taroo-no

kinooitta ] tokoro-GEN yesterday went place‘the place where Taroo went yesterday’b. [ Taroo-noi

ti taihosareta ] tokoro-GENarrested-was place‘the place where Taroo was arrested’
c. *[ hon -oi

Taroo-nobook-ACCti katta ] mise-GENbought shop‘the shop where Taroo bought a book’
If it is accusative Case that is prevented in a genitive subject sentence, we expect that nonaccusative phrases, such as adverbs, can freely occur intervening between the genitive subject
and the verb. This is confirmed by (44a). (44b) contains a passive sentence, and an NP-trace
occupies the object position. Genitive subject is possible as expected since an NP-trace neednot be checked for Case. Finally, a trace of scrambling appears in (44c), and a genitive subject
is excluded in this example. This is, again, expected since traces of scrambling, as opposed to
NP-traces, require Case licensing.
One case that is surprising in this context is the pattern pro exhibits. Hiraiwa (2000) andMiyazawa (2001) point out that there is no intervention effect with pro in the object position.
The following examples from Miyazawa 2001 illustrate this point:(45)

Ziroo-gahazimete

Nagoya-ni kuru -node, minna-ga-NOM for the first time

-to come-since alliroirona basyo-ni

kare-ovarious place -to

he -ACC take-NOM

turete iku yotei-desu
plan -is‘Since Ziroo is coming to Nagoya for the first time, the plan is for everyone totake him to various places’(46) a. *[ Hanako-no

kare-oturete iku ] tokoro-wa Nagoya-zyoo -desu-GEN he -ACC takeplace -TOP Nagoya Castle-is‘The place that Hanako is taking him is the Nagoya Castle.’

21b. [ Hanako-no

proturete iku ] tokoro-wa Nagoya-zyoo -desu

-GEN

take

place -TOP Nagoya Castle-is(45) sets up the context for (46). In (46a), the overt pronoun kare ‘he’ with accusative Case
blocks the genitive subject as expected. But as (46b) shows, the substitution of pro for theovert pronoun makes the sentence grammatical. This goes against the widely accepted
assumption that pro needs to be licensed for its Case.
The particular example in (46b), as noted in Saito 2004b, can be analyzed as an instanceof argument ellipsis instead of postulating pro in the object position. The analysis would go as
follows with the LF copying analysis discussed above. First, there is no pro and the object ismissing in the overt syntax. In LF, kare ‘he’ is copied from the LF representation of (45) tothat of (46b). Since kare comes from an LF representation, it has no uninterpretable feature, inparticular, no uninterpretable Case feature. Then, it need not be licensed for accusative Casein (46b), and the grammaticality of the example is correctly predicted.
However, there are cases where pro clearly fails to exhibit the intervention effect. It has
been known since Harada 1971 that a gap in a relative clause does not block genitive subjects.
Thus, (47) is perfectly grammatical.
(47)[ Taroo-no[e] katta ] hon-GENbought book‘the book that Taroo bought’
It is difficult to analyze (47) as an instance of argument ellipsis. Further, the standard analysis
for the gap in Japanese relative clauses, due to Perlmutter (1972), has been that it is pro.13
This analysis straightforwardly accounts for the fact, noted by Kuno (1973), that Japaneserelativization is not subject to Subjacency. One of Kuno’s celebrated examples is shown in
(48).
(48)

[ [ proi kite iru ]yoohuku-ga]

wearing-is suityogorete iru ] sinsii-NOM dirty-is

gentleman‘the gentleman who the suit that he is wearing is dirty’
It seems then that pro indeed does not exhibit the intervention effect on genitive subjects.

13

See Murasugi 1991 for extensive discussion on this hypothesis.

22This goes quite well with the possibility discussed at the outset of this section that radical
pro-drop involves the LF copying operation that is responsible for argument ellipsis. If pro isamong those LF objects that can be copied into a structure, then it should be void of
uninterpretable features. Hence, it should not require licensing of Case feature in particular. It
follows then that it can be copied into the object position of a genitive subject sentence
because it is not affected by the failure to license accusative Case. The intervention effect on
genitive subjects, thus, provides a piece of suggestive evidence for the unified treatment ofDP argument ellipsis and radical pro-drop: both involve LF coping of arguments, which inturn is possible only in languages that lack obligatory agreement.
Another suggestive evidence for the unified treatment of the two phenomena concerns
their distributions. As discussed in detail in Murasugi 1991, pro can stand not only forargument DPs but also for locative and temporal PPs in Japanese. The following example
shows that the relativization of locative PP is not subject to subjacency:(49)[Hanako-ga[ [proi sunde iru] hito

-NOM

live

-o]

sitte iru] matii

person-ACC know

town‘the town that Hanako knows a person who lives in it’
This is predicted if there is a locative PP pro. On the other hand, Murasugi also notes that pro
cannot be used for reason and manner adjuncts. (50) is ungrammatical with the intended
interpretation.
(50)*[Hanako-ga[ [proi kubi-ni natta] hito

-NOM

was-fired-o]sitte iru] riyuui

person-ACC know

reason‘the reason that Hanako knows a person who was fired for it’
This example can only refer to the reason that Hanako knows the person, and not to the reason
that the person was fired. This shows that pro cannot stand for a reason adjunct. Murasugi
concludes that pro can occur only in argument positions, and locative and temporal PPs arearguments of the event predicate.
Interestingly, argument ellipsis exhibits the same distribution. Thus, locative PPs can beelided as shown in (51).

23(51) a. Taroo-wa [zibun-nooya -noie-ni] sunde iru-TOP self -GEN parent-GEN house-in

live‘Taroo lives in his parents’ house’b. Demo, Hanako-wa
but______-TOP

sunde inai
live-not‘But Hanako does not live in his/her parents’ house’(51b) allows sloppy interpretation as indicated, and this shows that locative PPs are subject toargument ellipsis. Note that if an overt pronoun appears at the ellipsis site, then the strictreading is forced.
(52)

Demo, Hanako-wa soko-ni

sunde inai

but

live-not-TOP there-in‘But Hanako does not live in his parents’ house’
On the other hand, reason and manner adjuncts cannot be elided. Let us consider thefollowing example:(53) a. (Watasi-wa) [Taroo-gaI-TOP[zibun-no

sippai -de] kubi-ni natta to] kiite iru-NOM self -GEN mistake-for was-firedthat hear‘I hear that Taroo was fired because of his mistakes’
b. *Demo, [Hanako-ga
but_______-NOM

kubi-ni natta to]
was-firedkiite inaithat hear-not‘But I have not heard that Hanako was fired because of her mistakes’(53b) cannot receive the intended sloppy interpretation; it can only mean that I have not heardthat Hanako was fired. The intended interpretation obtains when zibun-no sippai-de ‘for self’s
mitakes’ appears overtly, as shown in (54).
(54)

Demo, [Hanako-ga
but[zibun-no

sippai -de] kubi-ni natta to]-NOM self -GEN mistake-for was-fired

kiite inaithat hear-not‘But I have not heard that Hanako was fired because of her mistakes’24This sentence is appropriate even when I have heard that Hanako was fired, but not becauseof her mistakes. Then, if zibun-no sippai-de ‘for self’s mitakes’ in (53a) can be copied into(53b) at LF, sloppy interpretation should be available in (53b) as well. (53), thus, shows thatreason adjuncts cannot be elided.14
This distributional similarity between radical pro-drop and argument ellipsis constitutes
indirect, but suggestive evidence for their unified treatment. If the LF copying of discourse
items is responsible for both of these phenomena, their distributional similarity is not at all
surprising.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, I have tried to relate three properties of East Asian languages; argument
ellipsis, radical pro-drop, and the absence of overt agreement. In Section 2, I argued that theargument ellipsis hypothesis is on firm empirical grounds. Then in Section 3, I discussed
Shinohara’s (2006) supporting evidence for Oku’s (1998) LF copying analysis. In Williams’(1977) classical LF copying analysis of VP ellipsis, it is argued that what is copied at theellipsis site is a logical form. I argued that this holds for argument ellipsis as well.
Based on this, I showed in Section 4 that argument DP ellipsis should be possible only inlanguages without obligatory agreement. Given this conclusion, it is tempting to attribute thepresence/absence of argument ellipsis entirely to the optionality/obligatoriness of agreement,
but I did not quite attain this result. In English, for example, not only DPs but also argument
CPs and PPs cannot be elided. An illicit example of CP ellipsis is shown in (55).
(55) *John says [CP that she is a genius], but Bill doesn’t think ________
If the absence of argument ellipsis is to be derived completely from obligatory agreement,
then it must be shown that CPs and PPs (including locatives and temporals) also participate inagreement. This is conceivable as Rackowski and Richards (2005) argue on the basis ofdetailed examination of Tagalog that there is agreement between v and a complement CP. But
further research is necessary to find out whether this is the correct approach or an independent
factor plays a role in the presence/absence of CP and PP ellipsis.
Finally, in Section 5, I suggested that radical pro-drop is a kind of argument ellipsis.

14

It would be interesting to investigate why (argument) ellipsis is constrained in this way. But I do

not have a clear hypothesis at the moment.

25

Although the discussion was quite speculative, I believe that the suggestion has a desirable
conceptual aspect. It seems clear that pro is required independently of argument ellipsis in
East Asian languages. For example, in Japanese, a student can utter (56) without any relevant
prior discourse when the teacher comes into the classroom.
(56)

pro kitacame‘She/he came’But the contexts for radical pro-drop and argument ellipsis show much overlap, as was shownin the preceding section, and it has been somewhat puzzling that both are attested in the samelanguages. In this situation, one would hope to reduce one to the other. If the suggestion madein this paper is on the right track, the mystery is resolved to a large extent. Those languages
that have argument ellipsis can use LF objects provided by the discourse in the derivation of a
new sentence, and radical pro-drop is an instance of this operation.

References
Bobaljik, Jonathan (1995) Morphosyntax: The Syntax of Verbal Inflection. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Burzio, Luigi (1986) Italian Syntax. Dordrecht: Springer.
Chomsky, Noam (2000) “Minimalist inquiries: The framework.” Roger Martin, David Michaels, andJuan Uriagereka, eds., Step by Step: Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik,
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 89-155.
Harada, Shin-ichi (1971) “Ga-no conversion and idiolectal variations in Japanese.” Gengo Kenkyu 60:
23-38.
Hiraiwa, Ken (2000) “On nominative-genitive conversion.” MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 39:
66-124.
Hoji, Hajime (1998) “Null objects and sloppy identity in Japanese.” Linguistic Inquiry 29: 127-152.
Huang, C.-T. James (1987) “Remarks on empty categories in Chinese.” Linguistic Inquiry 18: 321337.
Jaeggli, Osvaldo (1986) “Arbitrary plural pronominals.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 4:
43-76.
Kikuchi, Akira and Daiko Takahashi (1991) “Agreement and small clauses.” Heizo Nakajima andShigeo Tonoike, eds. Topics in Small Clauses, Tokyo: Kuroshio Shuppan, 75-105.
Kim, Soowon (1999) “Sloppy/Strict Identity, Empty Objects, and NP Ellipsis.” Journal of East Asian

26

Linguistics 8: 255-284.
Kuno, Susumu (1973) The Structure of the Japanese Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Kuroda, S.-Y. (1988) “Whether we agree or not: A comparative syntax of English and Japanese.”
Linguisticae Investigationes 12: 1-47.
Merchant, Jason (2001) The Syntax of Silence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miyazawa, Takako (2001) “Case conversions in Japanese.” B.A. Thesis, Nanzan University.
Murasugi, Keiko (1991) Noun Phrases in Japanese and English: A Study in Syntax, Learnability and
Acquisition. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut.
Nissenbaum, Jon (2000) Investigations of Covert Phrasal Movement. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Oku, Satoshi (1998) A Theory of Selection and Reconstruction in the Minimalist Perspective. Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Connecticut.
Otani, Kazuyo and John Whitman (1991) “V-raising and VP-ellipsis.” Linguistic Inquiry 22: 345-358.
Perlmutter, David (1972) “Evidence for shadow pronouns in French relativization.” Paul M. Peranteau,
et al., eds., The Chicago Witch Hunt, Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago, 73-105.
Rackowski, Andrea and Norvin Richards (2005) “Phase edge and extraction: A Tagalog case study.”
Linguistic Inquiry 36: 565-599.
Rizzi, Luigi (1986) “Null objects in Italian and the theory of pro.” Linguistic Inquiry 17: 501-557.
Saito, Mamoru (1982) “Case marking in Japanese: A preliminary study.” Unpublished manuscript,
MIT.
Saito, Mamoru (1989) “Scrambling as semantically vacuous A’-movement.” Mark Baltin andAnthony Kroch, eds., Alternative Conceptions of Phrase Structure, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 182-200.
Saito, Mamoru (2004a) “Ellipsis and pronominal reference in Japanese clefts.” Studies in Modern
Grammar 36: 1-44.
Saito, Mamoru (2004b) “Genitive subjects in Japanese: Implications for the theory of null objects.”
Peri Bhaskararao and Karumuri Venkata Subbarao, eds., Non-nominative Subjects: Volume 2,
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 103-118.
Saito, Mamoru (2005) “Further notes on the interpretation of scrambling chains.” Joachim Sabel andMamoru Saito, eds., The Free Word Order Phenomenon: Its Syntactic Sources and Diversity,
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 335-376.
Shinohara, Michie (2004) “On the deletion phenomena in Japanese.” B.A. Thesis, Nanzan University.
Shinohara, Michie (2006) “On some differences between the major deletion phenomena and Japaneseargument ellipsis.” Unpublished manuscript, Nanzan University.
Tada, Hiroaki (1993) A/A-bar Partition in Derivation. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Takahashi, Daiko (2006) “Apparent parasitic gaps and null arguments in Japanese.” Journal of East

27

Asian Linguistics 15: 1-35.
Watanabe, Akira (1996) “Nominative-genitive conversion and agreement in Japanese: A Crosslinguistic Perspective.” Journal of East Asian Linguistics 5: 373-410.
Williams, Edwin (1977) “Discourse and logical form.” Linguistic Inquiry 8: 101-139.
Xu, Liejiong (1986) “Free empty category.” Linguistic Inquiry 17: 75-93.