Null Object Constructions, VP-Ellipsis, and Sentence Interpretation

This paper discusses issues related to VP-Ellipsis and null object constructions in Mandarin Chinese. It consists of two parts. First, pace Li (1998), I argue that it is not true that no null object construction (NOC) sentences can be analyzed as VP -ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese, and I will show that the fact that the interpretation patterns of the relevant sentences deviate from those of their English counterparts is not because there is no VP-ellipsis in Chinese but because Chinese pronouns and reflexives exhibit some special properties. My claim in this paper is that some NOC sentences can be interpreted as VP -ellipsis, and others need to be interpreted as an empty pronoun, depending on whether the V-to-INFL raising occurs or not. Second, pace Kehler (1993), I argue that it is not the parallel vs. non-parallel distinction but the semantic and discourse constraints of coordinate constructions with too and ye 'also' in VP-ellipsis that explains why some VP-ellipsis sentences are ungrammatical. Hence, the coordination construction in neither English nor Chinese is constrained by the so-called syntactic condition which is based on the parallel vs. non-parallel distinction, as proposed in Kehler (1993), and discourse factors play a crucial role in the interpretation of coordination construction in the two languages concerned.