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<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>Just a footnote on Eitan's comment on Hebrew:<br>
</p>
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<div><font face="arial, sans-serif">As for Hebrew, I think
that David is mostly right, with Alex's proviso about
animacy. So null expression of animate objects seems
mostly awkward, but fine with a lot of inanimate
objects. In the (b) sentence below, null expression
varies with overt expression. </font></div>
<div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div>(a) kaniti lɛxɛm</div>
<div> I.bought bread</div>
<div> 'I bought bread'<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>(b) sim (oto) al-ha-ʃulχan </div>
<div> put.IMP (it) on-DEF-table </div>
<div> 'Put (it) on the table.'</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>But even with animates there can be null expression.
Edit Doron wrote about this some time ago, giving examples
like the equivalent of "Did you send the kids to school? I
sent."</div>
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<p>I agree with Eitan on (a) and (b) above. However, the latter ("I
sent") example seems to instantiate a somewhat different
construction, specific to responses to polar questions. English,
in the same context, also has "(Yes) I did", but you wouldn't want
to characterize this as an instance of the kind of zero object
that Martin is after. My feeling is that the same is true for
Hebrew, except that Hebrew doesn't have an auxiliary with "do",
and hence you repeat the entire verb. <br>
</p>
<p>David</p>
<p><br>
</p>
-- <br>
David Gil<br>
<br>
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution<br>
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History<br>
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany<br>
<br>
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a><br>
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834<br>
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816<br>
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