<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Hi All,<div>Can I make an appeal for using natural data in discussing this (and everything else)? Even for those who distinguish morphosyntax and pragmatics, this is clearly a situation where one has to take into account the communicative situation and the intention of the speaker. </div><div>It is very easy to find natural examples. Here is one from the first Chinese web page I looked at (<a href="https://m.ppzuowen.com/book/xiaomaoriji/lansedetuerduocao/53393.html">https://m.ppzuowen.com/book/xiaomaoriji/lansedetuerduocao/53393.html</a>)</div><div><br></div><div>No anaphor:</div><div><span style="font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "Microsoft YaHei", 微软雅黑, "Microsoft JhengHei", 华文细黑, STHeiti, MingLiu;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "Microsoft YaHei", 微软雅黑, "Microsoft JhengHei", 华文细黑, STHeiti, MingLiu;">“哪里有死神？我怎么没看见？”</span></div><div><font face="Microsoft YaHei, 微软雅黑, Microsoft JhengHei, 华文细黑, STHeiti, MingLiu" size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">“Where is there (a) Death Spirit? How is it I never saw (one)?</span></font></div><div><br></div><div>with anaphor (same story):</div><div><span style="font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "Microsoft YaHei", 微软雅黑, "Microsoft JhengHei", 华文细黑, STHeiti, MingLiu;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "Microsoft YaHei", 微软雅黑, "Microsoft JhengHei", 华文细黑, STHeiti, MingLiu;">整整一个晚上，我就这么守护着雨樱，决不让死神再靠近她。</span></div><div>’The whole night I watched over Yu Ying this way, no way would I allow the Death Spirit to come near her. ‘</div><div><br></div><div>In this case it would have been possible for the writer to not use the anaphoric pronoun, but the meaning would be different: with the pronoun the writer restricts the interpretation of who the Death Spirit would not be allowed to come near to Yu Ying, whereas without the pronoun the interpretation would not be constrained in this way, and so could be understood as ‘near us’. </div><div><br></div><div>Randy</div><div>Sent from my phone</div><div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On 17 Dec 2019, at 6:19 AM, Alex Francois <francois@vjf.cnrs.fr> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">dear Chao,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I realise that the examples you cite for animate pro-drop all follow a particular structure, namely, they are responses to polar questions, in which the verb is simply repeated, often dropping its subject and/or its object. Yet I agree with David's point, that this is a specific pragmatic context, which may have its own rules, in languages like Hebrew and Mandarin.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">So it's possible that we are not actually carrying out the same test in all languages.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">If we come back to Martin's question, I believe we should first agree on a particular syntactic context to be tested. This would make our data comparable across languages, and give stronger value to our generalisations ("structure X is allowed in language A but not in language B"). <br>In this case, the test could be defined as follows:</div></div><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><ul><li>The test sentence must have a transitive verb, which is <u>not</u> the mere repetition of a previous verb (as in a reply to a polar question). </li><li>Its grammatical object is a participant that is already activated in discourse (topical), and is retrieved anaphorically.</li><li>Can this object be zero-expressed? </li><li>In each language, the test could be carried out with </li></ul></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">(1) a speech act participant</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">(2) a human referent</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">(3) a non-human, animate referent</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">(4) an inanimate referent.</div></div></blockquote></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Here would be possible questionnaire sentences:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#660000">(<b style="">1</b>) My sister knows you already. She saw [[you]] last month at the party.<br></font><div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#660000"><br></font></div></div><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#660000">(<b style="">2</b>) You know my sister already. You saw [[her]] last month at the party.<br></font><div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#660000"><br></font></div></div><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#660000">(<b style="">3</b>) You know my cat already. You saw [[it]] last month in my home.<br></font><div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#660000"><br></font></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#660000">(<b style="">4</b>) You do know that song. You sang [[it]] last year in class.</font></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Mwotlap (Vanuatu) has obligatory expression of the object for sentences (1)–(2)–(3), using free pronouns; </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">it has obligatory dropping (zero expression) of the object in (4).</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">English and French have obligatory expression of the object in all four sentences.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">What about Mandarin? Hebrew? other languages?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">According to Jürgen's message, Mayan would have segmental realisation of the object in (1), but zero in (2)–(3)–(4).</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I propose the following hypothesis (which needs to be tested): <br>Languages will locate the boundary between overt and zero expression of the object somewhere along that scale {1>2>3>4}, with overt expression to the left and zero to the right. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">best</div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Alex</span></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,sans-serif"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><hr style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" width="70" size="1" noshade="" align="left"><div style="font-family:"Segoe UI",Verdana,"Trebuchet MS",Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,102,102);font-size:11px;line-height:16.5px"><p style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Alex François</p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">LaTTiCe</a> — <a title="ENS" href="http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">CNRS–</a><a title="ENS" href="https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">ENS</a>–<a title="ENS" href="http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Sorbonne nouvelle</a><br><a href="https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Australian National University</a><br><a href="https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Academia page</a> – <a href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Personal homepage</a></span></p><hr style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" size="1"></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(51,102,102);font-family:"Segoe UI",Verdana,"Trebuchet MS",Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:11px"> </span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 16 Dec 2019 at 22:29, Chao Li <<a href="mailto:chao.li@aya.yale.edu">chao.li@aya.yale.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Dear Alex and Martin,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">I agree with Alex, Eitan, and Volker that animacy is an important factor when all the contexts of object-drop are examined. At the same time, I would like to add that, with respect to
Mandarin, animate objects may also be naturally dropped, and this is particularly true of conversational contexts, as shown in (1-2). <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">(1)<span> </span>A: <span> </span>你喜欢他(/她)吗？</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none">Nǐ xǐhuan tā (/tā) ma?<span> <br></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"><span> you like him(/her) Question.Particle<br></span></span></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> ‘Do you like him(/her)?'<span> <br></span></span></p><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">
</span><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%"> B</span><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN">: </span><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN">当然喜欢啦。<br><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> Dāngrán xǐhuan la. <br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> of.course like Sentence.Final.Particle <br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> '(I) of course like (him/her).' <br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"><br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none">(2) A: (holding a picture）</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> 你见过这个人吗？</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> Nǐ jiàn-guo zhè-gè rén ma?</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> you see-Experiential this-Classifier person Question.Particle <br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> 'Did you see this person before?'</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> B: 我没见过。</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> Wǒ méi jiàn-guo.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> I not see-Experiential <br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"> 'I didn't.' <br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none"><br></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none">Best regards,</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%" lang="ZH-CN"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline;float:none">Chao</span></span></span></div>
</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 10:30 AM Alex Francois <<a href="mailto:francois@vjf.cnrs.fr" target="_blank">francois@vjf.cnrs.fr</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><div>dear Martin,</div><div><br></div><div>One dimension you forgot to mention, and which appears crucial to me for any study of that sort, is animacy. </div><div>I can think of many languages where zero-anaphora is allowed (or even the rule) for inanimate patients, while it would be less possible for animate ~ human ones.</div><div><br></div><div>I think this is true, for example, for the <b>Mandarin </b>example you cite:</div></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">今天早上我见到了<b><font color="#9900ff">她</font></b>。<br></div><div><font face="monospace">Jīntiān zǎoshang wǒ jiàndào le <b><font color="#9900ff">tā</font></b>.<br></font></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><font face="monospace">today morning 1sg see PFT 3sg:(Fem)</font></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">'I saw <u style="font-weight:bold">her</u> this morning.'</font></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><br></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">今天早上我见到了。</font><br><div><div><div><font face="monospace">Jīntiān zǎoshang wǒ jiàndào le <font color="#9900ff">∅</font>.<br></font></div></div></div><div><div><div><font face="monospace">today morning 1sg see PFT ∅</font></div></div></div><div><div><div><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">'I saw <u style="font-weight:bold">it</u> this morning.'</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">(Chinese speakers and experts, please correct me.)</div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><b>Mwotlap </b>(and other northern Vanuatu languages) would be similar: Zero anaphora is the norm for non-human objects, but not expected for human objects:</div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">No m-eksas <font color="#9900ff"><b>kē </b> </font>aqyig lemtap<br></font></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><font face="monospace">1sg PFT-see 3sg today:Past morning</font></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">'I saw </span><u style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight:bold">her</u><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"> this morning.'</span><br></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><br></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">No m-eksas </font><b><font color="#9900ff">∅</font></b><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><font color="#9900ff"><b> </b> </font>aqyig lemtap<br></font></div></div></div><div><div><div><font face="monospace">1sg PFT-see </font>∅<font face="monospace"> today:Past morning</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div>'I saw <u style="font-weight:bold">it</u> this morning.'</div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><div><div></div></div></div></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I don't think that Mandarin <i>tā</i> qualifies as a clitic; nor does Mwotlap <i>kē</i>. </div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Insofar as they are obligatorily expressed for animate patients, then these cases would constitute, like English, exceptions to the general principle you're proposing.</div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">best</div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font size="2">Alex</font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,sans-serif"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><hr style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" width="70" size="1" noshade="" align="left"><div style="font-family:"Segoe UI",Verdana,"Trebuchet MS",Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,102,102);font-size:11px;line-height:16.5px"><p style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Alex François</p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">LaTTiCe</a> — <a title="ENS" href="http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">CNRS–</a><a title="ENS" href="https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">ENS</a>–<a title="ENS" href="http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Sorbonne nouvelle</a><br><a href="https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Australian National University</a><br><a href="https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Academia page</a> – <a href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Personal homepage</a></span></p><hr style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" size="1"> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 16 Dec 2019 at 15:13, Haspelmath, Martin <<a href="mailto:haspelmath@shh.mpg.de" target="_blank">haspelmath@shh.mpg.de</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"></span><span lang="EN-US"></span><span lang="EN-US">I have a question on 3rd person anaphoric pronouns in the world’s languages.
In many languages, these are optional when they refer to a continuous topic, not only in subject (S/A) role, but also in object (P) role. So we get patterns like the following:</span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">– Have you seen Lee today?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">– Yes, I met (her) in the cafeteria.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I’m wondering if the following universal tendency is true:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">(U) In almost all languages, if the anaphoric object pronoun is obligatory, it is a bound form (= a form that cannot occur on its own, i.e. an affix or a clitic).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Spanish and Arabic are examples of languages where the obligatory anaphoric object forms are bound (clitic or affix). English and German are exceptions to this generalization (and perhaps
a few other European languages as well). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">But are there many exceptions? According to Siewierska (2004: 43), about two thirds of all languages (223 out of 378 in
<a href="https://wals.info/feature/102A" target="_blank">her WALS chapter</a>) have bound object person forms (= object indexes), so the hypothesized universal tendency is a question about those languages that lack object indexes, and have only independent
personal pronouns or demonstratives for object function. Are there many among them which (like English) obligatorily require an overt form in this function?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Or are most of them like Mandarin Chinese, which according to Wiedenhof (2015: §5.2.2) happily allows zero-anaphora sentences like
<i>Nǐ yào ma?</i> [you want Q] ‘Do you want it?’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I’m interested in all reports of languages outside of Europe which are unlike Mandarin, and like English, in this respect.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Many thanks,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Martin</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<pre cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath (<a href="mailto:haspelmath@shh.mpg.de" target="_blank">haspelmath@shh.mpg.de</a>)
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10
D-07745 Jena
&
Leipzig University
Institut fuer Anglistik
IPF 141199
D-04081 Leipzig </pre>
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