Null Instantiation Nina Jagtiani and Chris Sams  7420 Fall 2006

FrameNet

What is Null Instantiation? n There are cases where arguments are semantically present, but absent syntactically. n Semantically, we can categorize the missing argument by how it is interpreted. n Syntactically, we can categorize the missing argument by how it is licensed.

Semantic Classification n Indefinite Null Instantiation (INI) – Jena ate. – The referent of the missing argument is not recoverable from the text. n Definite Null Instantiation (DNI) – I told you already. (tell, inform, and notify) – The referent should be recoverable from the context.

Semantic Classification contd. n Constructional Null Instantiation (CNI) – Harsh things were said. – Tell me about yourself. – The referent that is missing is determined by the syntactic construction. (Passives and imperatives allow an unexpressed argument.)

Syntactic Classification n Lexical- The potential for a missing argument comes from the lexical entry of the licensing head e.g. ‘eat’ allows INI of it’s object, but ‘devour’ does not n Systemic- Japanese any argument pro-drop (must be nice) and Spanish ‘pro-drop’. Systemic pro-drop allows DNI.

A claim about the theory... n No language allows INI of subjects. n What is Will’s take on the claim?

Will has reviewed the literature, and has a concern... n The German Impersonal Passive – Hier wird nicht geparkt. (No parking here) – Im Gang wird nicht geraucht (No smoking in the corridor) – Here we seem to have a INI of the subject.

What about Japanese? n Tabeta – I/you/he ate or I/you/he ate it. – Who ate it? – The context determines the meaning.

Evidence for the argument being present on the conceptual level n From Koenig (1993) n La correspondante elle (les) admirait aussi. n The corrispondent she (them) admired also. n Je lui ai fait manger chaudes. n I him have made eat (them) hot

Motion (Fillmore 1986) n Many motion verbs of location, allow DNI of the location SOURCE (leave, depart) GOAL (arrive or come) and LANDMARK (pass or cross). n The solution occurred to me right before I left ( ) at 4pm. n However, with ficitive motion as in ‘the highway passes’ the LANDMARK is not subject to omission. n The highway passes (Springdale) before heading in an easterly direction.

Focal Ellipsis n Let’s look at page 367

Focal Ellipsis n What is missing is a focus rather than a referent that has active discourse status and/or bears the pragmatic relation to the proposition expressed by the clause (Ruppenhofer p. 367)

A nice chart n Let’s look at page 368

Blocked Complements n Page

% of NI of certain verbs n Page 423

Syntactic Properties of Various Omission Types n Page 428

Where to go from here? n Problems: incorporation p. 476 n Cross linguistic concerns? n Is it possible to predict which element of a given verb frame will be NI?