Talk:Empty category

Will be adding some additional information and performing some structural formatting over the next few week(s). SepiaAndreana (talk) 01:32, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

Over the next few weeks, I will update the page in order to improve stylistic consistency, and add a new section on detecting empty categories. IE-coates (talk) 05:51, 15 March 2019 (UTC)

Edited Null C tree image, minor grammar edits Oliviapriestlay (talk) 11:45, 08 December 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

Added section including reliable references on CP Hypothesis and IP Hypothesis in relation to Null C Oliviapriestlay (talk) 11:14, 30 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

Added several references to sections on PRO and pro Oliviapriestlay (talk) 11:54, 23 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

Added image of phrase structure tree for PRO example Oliviapriestlay (talk) 10:14, 23 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

Added reference (Chomsky, Noam) to introductory paragraph Oliviapriestlay (talk) 14:14, 18 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

Edited WH-trace example to reflect a more simple sentence, for ease of understanding. Added an image to illustrate this type of movement Oliviapriestlay (talk) 14:06, 18 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

Added reference (Sportiche, Dominique) to existing material. Added image to DP-trace section, illustrates movement operation in example 4 Oliviapriestlay (talk) 10:11, 18 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

Updated "NP-trace" section to "DP-trace" to reflect more current terminology. Added reference (Brody, Micheal) to existing material. Restructuring of existing material in order to ease flow of reading Oliviapriestlay (talk) 15:32, 17 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

I plan to first focus on organizing/cleaning up grammar of existing content Oliviapriestlay (talk) 11:48, 05 November 2018 (UTC) Olivia Priestlay

In the context of course project, this page will be updated and edited. (November-December 2018)

I plan to add sections on functional determination and free determination, but I just haven't quite got around to them and I wanted to save something. Any other suggestions are welcome. —Ed Cormany 23:43, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The following is a list of possible references to help expand this page:

Brody, Michael. "On the Complementary Distribution of Empty Categories." Linguistic Inquiry 16.4 (1985): 505-46. Print.

Byrne, Francis. "Evidence Against Grammars without Empty Categories." Linguistic Inquiry 17.4 (1986): 754-9. Print.

Featherston, Sam. Empty Categories in Sentence Processing. 43 Vol. Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 2001. Print.

Fernández-Salgueiro, Gerardo. "Romance Null Subjects At The Sensory-Motor Interface." Syntax 14.1 (2011): 1-28. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Oct. 2013.

Grodzinsky, Y., & Finkel, L. (1998). The Neurology of Empty Categories: Aphasics' Failure to Detect Ungrammaticality. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10(2), 281-292. doi:10.1162/089892998562708

Group C3: Relativizer - reviewing group A3 (empty categories)

1. Content a. This article is well-written, except for a few minor grammatical issues. Clear explanations are given for most aspects of the topic, although some examples could use introductions and a bit more explanation. b. This article is comprehensive as it first states the definition of the topic, and then goes on to give examples of empty categories. Furthermore, the article not only includes examples from English, but also examples and comparison to other languages. c. This article is well-researched. It includes the main points, with the claims being supported by reliable sources. The inline citations are also used to further support the claims. d. This article maintains neutrality by providing examples from languages other than English and by offering direct comparisons of empty categories in other languages to those in English and highlighting the differences. e. This article is stable because it is fairly well-referenced, covers examples from English and other languages, explains each type of empty category, in turn, and discusses null categories and other applications.

2. Style a. The lead section of this article is correctly formatted and provides a clear and concise introduction to the topic of the article. b. I don’t know exactly what audience we’re supposed to be going for with these articles, but the majority of this article has terms that might be hard to understand for the average reader. You can explain some of the more high-level grammatical terms (like phonological content or base-generated – like what’s a base form versus a surface form?) or just put double square brackets around them  so that they can click on the word and get redirected to an article about that term. Tthe article would flow better if each section showed the examples after the paragraph that explains the concept (like in Big pro, NP trace, and WH trace). The section “Acquisition and other applications of empty categories” is hard to follow and would probably be easier to read if the examples were given on new lines every time to cut up the prose. Titles according to Wiki should only have the first word and proper nouns capitalized, and then the rest of the words are all lower case. c. Citations are consistent in this article. However, other than the inline citations, there are very few citations. This article uses the proper citation style.

3. Images The three images used in this entry are mostly in accordance with Wikipedia’s Image Use Policy. The description is given along with the acknowledgement that the images have been created by the uploader and this information is available on the description page. However, further necessary information is missing such as what program was used to create the image, and citations for where the data used to create the trees came from. With these additions to the file page, the entry should follow Wikipedia’s IUP.

4. Length: Quite lengthy, but well detailed and good focus. Perhaps a little more of a summary style would be helpful. Information in subsections can be combined into one section, such as in the subsections for differences in English and Chinese and English and Japanese. Vletawsky (talk) 06:51, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Hoekstra, T., and H. J. Bennis. A Representational Theory of Empty Categories. NL: Foris Publications, Dordrecht, 1989. Print.

Liejiong, Xu. "Free Empty Category." Linguistic Inquiry 17.1 (1986): 75-93. Print.

Matsuo, Ayumi. "Differing Interpretations Of Empty Categories In English And Japanese VP Ellipsis Contexts." Language Acquisition 14.1 (2007): 3-29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Oct. 2013.

Otsuka, Yuko. "PRO Versus Null SE: Case, Tense, And Empty Categories In Tongan." Syntax 14.3 (2011): 265-296. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Oct. 2013.

Pliatsikas, Christos, and Theodoros Marinis. "Processing Empty Categories In A Second Language: When Naturalistic Exposure Fills The (Intermediate) Gap." Bilingualism: Language & Cognition 16.1 (2013): 167-182. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Oct. 2013.

Tess Forest, Elena Ramos, Quinn Lambert, Michelle Chan, Rachel Cheuk Oct. 4th, 2013 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Taforest (talk • contribs) 19:48, 4 October 2013 (UTC)