37.632, Confs: Syntax and Semantics of Implicit Arguments (Austria)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-632. Mon Feb 16 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.632, Confs: Syntax and Semantics of Implicit Arguments (Austria)

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Date: 12-Feb-2026
From: Zi Huang [zi.huang at uni-graz.at]
Subject: Syntax and Semantics of Implicit Arguments


Syntax and Semantics of Implicit Arguments
Short Title: ImpArg

Date: 28-Sep-2026 - 29-Sep-2026
Location: Graz, Austria
Meeting URL: https://sites.google.com/view/imparg-graz/

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics; Syntax

Submission Deadline: 01-May-2026

Implicit arguments – participants in an event or relation that are not
overtly realized but are nonetheless interpreted and syntactically
active – pose persistent challenges for theories of argument
structure, linking, and the syntax-semantics interface. Canonical
examples include, among others, the unexpressed external argument of
passives (The ship was sunk), null internal arguments of certain
transitive verbs (Tom already ate), and unsaturated thematic roles in
deverbal nominals and adjectives (the destruction, Jane is proud).
Such cases raise important questions about how arguments are licensed,
represented, and interpreted in the absence of phonological
realization, in general, as well as about how implicit arguments, in
particular, relate to other covert categories such as PRO, pro,
movement traces/copies and ellipsis sites.
Theoretical approaches to implicit arguments diverge widely. While
some consider them to be unsaturated thematic roles (Williams 1985,
Grimshaw 1990) or existentially closed in the lexical semantics of the
predicate without being represented in the syntax (Partee 1989,
Lasersohn 1997), more recent research has shown that implicit
arguments crucially participate in grammatical dependencies (Williams
2015, Bhatt & Pancheva 2017, Collins 2024). Some of this work
emphasizes the role of functional structure, proposing that implicit
arguments – for instance, implicit external arguments of passives –
are introduced by heads such as Voice rather than by the verb itself
(Kratzer 1996; Legate 2014; Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou & Schäfer 2015;
Collins 2024).
A further complication is that implicit arguments do not appear to
form a uniform class. Their availability and properties vary across
predicate types (verbs, adjectives, nouns) and constructions
(passives, middles, impersonals, nominalizations), they differ in
their interpretive possibilities, including existential, generic, and
definite readings (Condoravdi & Gawron 1996; Collins 2024) and may
have different behavior across languages (Rizzi 1986). These
differences raise the question of whether “implicit argument” names a
single grammatical phenomenon or a family of related ones (Bhatt &
Pancheva 2017; Landau 2010) and how they should be accounted for.
This workshop aims to bring together work from syntax, semantics, and
their interface to reassess the status of implicit arguments among
covert categories in grammar. By focusing on their distribution,
grammatical activity/representation, interpretation, and formal
analysis, the workshop aims to clarify what implicit arguments reveal
about argument structure, the division of labor between syntax and
semantics, and the architecture of grammar in general.
We invite contributions that address the following research questions
and possibly further related topics.
1. Where do implicit arguments appear?
Which (sub)classes of predicates (verbs, adjectives, nouns) and which
constructions (e.g. passives, impersonals, middles, nominalizations)
license implicit arguments? How construction-specific or
predicate-specific is their availability?
2. How many types of implicit arguments are there?
Should we distinguish different types of implicit arguments, such as
implicit external arguments of passives, null internal arguments of
verbs, or implicit arguments in nominals and adjectives? How do these
types correlate with differences in interpretation (existential,
definite, generic) and with other covert categories in the grammar?
3. What are the syntactic and semantic properties of implicit
arguments?
What diagnostics distinguish implicit arguments from other covert
elements such as pro, PRO, or movement traces/copies? Are implicit
arguments syntactically represented, or are they only semantically
active? Bhatt & Pancheva (2017) argue that they are syntactically
active but it is not clear whether they are also syntactically
represented. How can we test their syntactic representation? How do
tests involving control, anaphora, modification or discourse reference
bear on this question?
4. How should implicit arguments be analyzed?
How should implicit arguments be modeled formally in syntax and
semantics? How are they licensed and how are they interpreted? Can
they be treated as pro or PRO, ellipsis, as part of lexical argument
structure, or as introduced by functional heads? What are the
consequences of different analyses for theories of argument structure
and the syntax-semantics interface?
Invited Speakers:
Maia Duguine (CNRS-IKER)
Monica-Alexandrina Irimia (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Florian Schäfer (Humboldt University, Berlin)
Important Dates:
Deadline for abstract submission: May 1, 2026
Notification of acceptance: June 15, 2026
Program available: June 30, 2026
Registration from: June 30, 2026
Workshop dates: September 28-29, 2026
Call for Papers:
This workshop aims to bring together work from syntax, semantics, and
their interface to reassess the status of implicit arguments among
covert categories in grammar. By focusing on their distribution,
grammatical activity/representation, interpretation, and formal
analysis, the workshop aims to clarify what implicit arguments reveal
about argument structure, the division of labor between syntax and
semantics, and the architecture of grammar in general.
Each talk will be allotted 45 minutes (30 minutes for presentation and
15 minutes for discussion). Abstracts should be anonymous and should
not exceed 2 pages in length (A4 or letter-size), in 12pt font, with
1-inch/2.5-cm margins, including examples and references. The deadline
for submissions is May 1, 2026, 23:59 CEST.
Please submit your abstracts through OpenReview. Note that new
profiles created on OpenReview without an institutional email will go
through a moderation process that can take up to two weeks.



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