IMMEDIATE DOMINANCE AND IDENTITY DELETION

Abstract

A non-universal Immediate Dominance Condition on identity deletion is proposed to explain the systematic differences between languages like Chinese and languages like English in their respective patterns of coordination, topicalization, dis location, and relativization. By assuming that this condition holds for languages of the Chinese-type, but not for those of the English-type, it is possible to account for the well-formed coordinations of all languages by means of a single universal principle of coordination reduction, and it is possible to derive the well-formed topicalizations, dislocations, and relative clause constructions of all languages by means of the same set of universal principles of Copying, Deletion, and Pronominalization. In this paper we will propose that there is a non-universal Immediate Dominance Condition on identity deletion which is capable of providing a systematic explanation of various differences between languages like Mandarin Chinese and languages like English. It will be shown that this condition is justified for languages like Chinese but not for those like English, and that this grammatical difference is sufficient to account for a number of superficial differences between these language types in diverse constructions involving identity deletion. In the first part of the paper, we will show how the Immediate Dominance Condition serves to account for the distinctive patterns of coordination which are characteristic of each of the two language types. In the second and third parts, we will show that this condition is also capable of explaining certain interesting differences between the two types in their patterns of pronominalization and deletion in relative clauses and other subordinate constructions. 1. COORDINATION