Papers by Nick Huang
Proceedings of NELS 49, 2019
Idiom chunks can participate in anaphoric relations, as many have observed (Nunberg et al. 1994, ... more Idiom chunks can participate in anaphoric relations, as many have observed (Nunberg et al. 1994, Bruening 2015 etc.). However, to the best of our knowledge, the theoretical implications of this fact have not been properly appreciated. In this paper, building on existing observations, we present a novel paradigm that shows that pronominalization and VP ellipsis in clausal idioms are not as free as some would expect. Namely, pronoun subjects and VP ellipsis appear to have to co-occur to preserve the interpretation of a clausal idiom. We argue that this paradigm lends new support to (i) the idea that pronouns can be derived from full noun phrases (e.g. Elbourne 2001, Postal 1966), (ii) an identity condition on ellipsis that takes into account the content of a syntactic chunk larger than the elided constituent (e.g. Gengel 2007, pace Merchant 2001), and (iii) the idea that idiomatic interpretation is sensitive to pragmatic inferences about remnants of ellipsis.
A new argument that definite DPs are locality domains (candidate phases), building on a recent pr... more A new argument that definite DPs are locality domains (candidate phases), building on a recent proposal by Grano and Lasnik.
Whether Mandarin Chinese has tense has been the subject of much debate. In this paper, I offer no... more Whether Mandarin Chinese has tense has been the subject of much debate. In this paper, I offer novel observations on the distribution and syntactic properties on a less-studied future-marking particle, jiang. I argue that these properties of jiang show that Mandarin Chinese has syntactic tense: jiang is syntactically a future tense morpheme, and not a modal auxiliary, nor a time adverb or an irrealis marker. Mandarin Chinese clauses are thus minimally T(ense)Ps, like clauses in languages with overt tense morphology. In addition, I show that empirical evidence supports two predictions consistent with this analysis: first, jiang is incompatible with bare nominal predicates, as expected if tense-marking requires an overt verbal host for syntactic well-formedness (as argued by Lin (2010)); second, jiang is infelicitous in clausal complements of control verbs, suggesting that Chinese has a finite/non-finite distinction (pace Hu, Pan, and Xu (2001)). Lastly, I discuss how this syntactic proposal might relate to existing semantic analyses of jiang and accounts of temporal interpretation in Mandarin Chinese.
Conference Presentations by Nick Huang
In pro-drop languages, what kind of syntax is responsible for the omission of a subject? We argue... more In pro-drop languages, what kind of syntax is responsible for the omission of a subject? We argue that ellipsis plays a role, using data from clausal idioms.
The girls the boys the dog bit met yesterday were hungry.
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Papers by Nick Huang
Conference Presentations by Nick Huang