Null Noun Complements in English

Abstract

It is argued that the nominal complement of certain English nouns may be realized as an empty category (EC), which is best analyzed as pro. The study focuses on sentence paraphrases, eg, This car is being sold by its owner/This car is being sold by the owner. It is argued that the EC/pro analysis not only contributes to the description of English grammar but relates to the questions of argument optionality & the correlation between null pronominal anaphora & richness of inflection. 16 References. B. Annesser Murray