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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Thanks for the various reactions and comments! Alex François's proposal (copied below) makes a lot of sense.<br>
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It may well be that his generalization (U2) will turn out to be true, but it is somewhat different from my proposal (U1), repeated below.<br>
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(U2) 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.<br>
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(U1) <span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">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).<br>
<br>
What I am after is the idea that boundness and obligatoriness tend to be correlated in anaphoric forms, such that bound forms have a greater tendency to be obligatory, and obligatory forms have a greater tendency to be bound (and also conversely for free forms
and optional forms). This would be explained by frequency of occurrence: If a form is very frequent, it is likely to be(come) obligatory, and it is also likely to be(come) short – and therefore bound – for reasons of coding efficiency.<br>
<br>
But I do recognize that "obligatoriness/optionality" are somewhat vague and need to be sharpened, e.g. along the lines suggested by Alex.<br>
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As for Alex's scale, I must say that I don't understand why inanimate objects should have a greater tendency to be zero-expressed than animate objects. Is this a kind of differential object marking? But if so, wouldn't we expect the mirror image with subject
marking (i.e. greater tendency for animate anaphoric subjects to be zero)?<br>
<br>
</span>Martin<br>
<br>
On 16.12.19 23:19, Alex Francois wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">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>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">In this case, the test could be defined as follows:</div>
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<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>
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<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>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Here would be possible questionnaire sentences:</div>
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<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>
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<div class="gmail_default"><font face="trebuchet ms,
sans-serif" color="#660000"><br>
</font></div>
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<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>
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<div class="gmail_default"><font face="trebuchet ms,
sans-serif" color="#660000"><br>
</font></div>
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<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>
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<div class="gmail_default"><font face="trebuchet ms,
sans-serif" color="#660000"><br>
</font></div>
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<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>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">best</div>
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<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>
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<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" moz-do-not-send="true">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" moz-do-not-send="true">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" moz-do-not-send="true">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" moz-do-not-send="true">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" moz-do-not-send="true">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" moz-do-not-send="true">Academia page</a> – <a href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Personal
homepage</a></span></p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:haspelmath@shh.mpg.de">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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