empty heads in HPSG (was: status of words; HPSG and CG)

[Berthold Crysmann]

Emily Bender wrote:

> Berthold Crysmann wrote
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > Similar yes, but there are certain differences which I believe make the
> > option of (zero-)morphemes quite unattractive: Typically, in syntax, there
> > is only a single though largely underspecified empty element (e.g. trace)
> > the properties of which are filled by syntactic context in a principled
> > way. In morpheme-based morphology, however, the purpose of introducing zero
> > element is quite a different one: here, properties are intrinsic to the
> > empty element (e.g. empty plural morphemes, empty agreement markers, empty
> > tense/aspect morphemes, empty category converters.... ), and what one will
> > end up with is a plethora of homophonous (all zero) , yet
> > categorically/featurally  distinct morphemes. (Add to this the necessity of
> > adding black hole morphemes, for subtractive morphology and the like).  It
> > is probably quite telling that noone, as far as I'm aware, has introduced
> > empty heads into HPSG. But this is exactly what people in morpheme-based
> > morphology are doing. Worse, while in syntax empty elements are always
> > filled by the context, this is not necessarily true of morphology. I feel
> > that the equivalence is  only of a very  technical nature, then....
> >
> > [...]
>
> In my study of the syntax of AAVE copula absence (see Bender 2001,
> ch 3), I was grudgingly led to the conclusion that the facts require one
> to posit either an (i.e., one particular) empty verb or a construction
> that in some contexts is phonologically empty.

At first blush, that sounds a bit strange to me: isn't it one of the advantages
of constructiuons that you can assign properties to configurations, let's say a
non-headed structure, whithout actually the need of assigning these properties
to some empty head? Can you summarise the main reason for that move even within
the constructional context?

Berthold



> This was in the context
> of a traceless version of HPSG.  I believe this is quite different
> the proliferation of empty heads one finds in other syntactic frameworks.
>

>

>
> I know there is some other HPSG work that suggests and empty noun
> head in constructions like "the rich" in English and German, but
> I can't find the reference right now.
>
> -- Emily
>
> Reference:
>
> Bender, Emily M. 2001.  Syntactic Variation and Linguistic Competence:
> The Case of AAVE Copula Absence.  PhD thesis, Stanford University.
> http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~bender/dissertation/

--
Berthold Crysmann
Deutsches Forschungszentrum Kuenstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) GmbH
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D-66123 Saarbrücken