The Syntax of Pro-drop in Thai On-Usa Phimsawat B.A. Burapha 2000 M.A. NIDA 2003 Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the regulations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, & LINGUISTICS SEPTEMBER 2011 © 2011 On-Usa Phimsawat All rights reserved ii Table of Contents Thesis Abstract………………...…………..…………………………..………………….i Acknowledgements….…………………………………..……………………...……...….iii List of Tables and Figures………………………………………………………………..iv List of Abbreviations and Keywords ……………………………………………………v Chapter 1: Introduction.......................................................................................................1 1.1 Nature and Distribution of Overt and Null Pronouns in Thai........................................2 1.1.1 Overt pronouns in Thai..........................................................................................2 1.1.2 Pro-drop in Thai...................................................................................................5 1.2 Overview of Thai Syntax .......................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 The head is initial ............................................................................................ 12 1.2.2 Serial verb constructions ................................................................................. 14 1.2.3 Topic prominence ........................................................................................... 14 1.2.4 Particles .......................................................................................................... 16 1.3 Outline of the Thesis................................................................................................. 17 Chapter 2: Typology of Thai Pro-drop .......................................................................... 19 2.1 R-expressions, Pronominals, Anaphors and the Binding Rules in Thai........................ 19 2.2 Null Pronominals and their Antecedents in Thai.............................................................22 2.2.1 C-commanding antecedents ............................................................................... 22 2.2.2 Discourse (non-c-commanding) antecedents.........................................................24 2.2.2.1 Antecedents in a preceding sentence.........................................................24 2.2.2.2 Understood antecedents.............................................................................25 2.3 Types of Null Pronouns in Thai......................................................................................26 2.4 Restrictions on the Occurrence of Null Pronouns in Thai..............................................30 2.5 Summary.........................................................................................................................32 Chapter 3: Empty Categories in Discourse Pro-drop Languages.....................................34 3.1 Empty Categories (ECs)................................................................................................34 3.2 The Binding Principles .............................................................................................. 36 3.2.1 Binding of ECs ................................................................................................ 36 3.3 Null Arguments in Discourse Pro-drop Languages .................................................... 39 3.3.1 C.-T. J. Huang (1984; 1989)............................................................................. 39 3.3.1.1 Topic-variables and object ECs................................................................45 3.3.2 Xu (1986, 2003)...................................................................................................48 3.3.3 Tomioka (2003) ............................................................................................... 50 3.3.4 Saito (2007) ..................................................................................................... 52 3.3.5 Speas‟s (2001) Optimal Theory (OT) for the syntax of null pronouns .............. 54 3.4 Summary................................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 4: Impersonals, Genericity and Indefinite Topics ........................................... 57 4.1 Some Definitions ........................................................................................................ 57 4.2 The English System of Impersonals ............................................................................ 59 4.3 Generalisations of Impersonal Pronouns in Thai ......................................................... 62 4.3.1 Generic inclusive and generic quasi-inclusive readings ..................................... 64 4.3.2 Generic exclusive and arbitrary readings ........................................................... 66 4.4 Agreement and the Occurrences of Overt Pronouns .................................................... 70 4.5 Properties and Internal Structures of Generic Pronouns (G-pronouns)......................... 71 4.5.1 Inclusive G-pronouns ........................................................................................ 74 4.5.2 Quasi-inclusive G-pronouns. ............................................................................. 77 4.5.3 Exclusive G-pronouns and arbitrary pronouns .....................................................80 4.6 Indefinite Topics ........................................................................................................ 83 4.7 Summary...................... .............................................................................................. 85 Chapter 5: The Interpretation of Referential Null Pronouns and Discourse Functions in Thai. ................................................................................................... 87 5.1 Some Definitions of Topic and Focus.............................................................................87 5.2 Referential Topics...........................................................................................................95 5.2.1 Hanging topics (H-Topics)....................................................................................98 5.2.2 Aboutness topics (A-Topics) vs Aboutness-shift Topics (A-shift Topics)...........98 5.2.3 Familiar topics (F-Topics)...................................................................................103 5.2.4 Contrastive topics (C-Topics).............................................................................104 5.3 Properties and Internal Structures of Referential Null Pronouns .................................106 5.4 Some Criteria for Distinguishing Resumptive Pronouns and Traces/ Copies in Thai..110 5.5 Summary.......................................................................................................................115 Chapter 6: The Structures of Null Arguments in Thai ............................................... 116 6.1 The Properties and Internal Structures of Null Arguments ........................................ 116 6.2 Types of Controllers and Null Arguments...................................................................119 6.3 Phonological Realisation of Pronominal Arguments in Thai.......................................122 6.3.1 Obligatorily null pronominal arguments............................................................122 6.3.1.1 Inclusive G-pronouns............................................................................122 6.3.1.2 Null topics operators.............................................................................124 6.3.1.3 Big PRO................................................................................................127 6.3.1.4 Null object arguments ..........................................................................129 6.3.2 Obligatorily overt pronominal arguments .........................................................131 6.3.3 Optionally null pronominal arguments..............................................................132 6.3.3.1 The speaker as the default antecedent..................................................132 6.4 On the Issue of Control ...............................................................................................134 6.4.1 Indirect control...................................................................................................135 6.4.2 Direct control......................................................................................................139 6.5 Other Syntactic Constraints on the Occurrences of Null Arguments...........................143 6.5.1 Conjoined NPs....................................................................................................143 6.5.2 Prepositional complements................................................................................144 6.6 The Applicability of the ϕ-Featureless Null Noun Account to Other Discourse Pro-drop Languages...................................................................................................145 6.6.1 Null arguments in other discourse pro-drop languages.....................................149 6.7 The Status of Thai in the Typology of Pro-drop Languages........................................155 Chapter 7: Conclusion........................................................................................................159 Bibliography.........................................................................................................................164