The (Non-)Existence of Gapping in Chinese and Its Implications for the Theory of Gapping

It has been claimed in the literature that gapping is prohibited in Chinese. Johnson's (1994) theory of gapping receives important support from Chinese. However, Li (1988) and Paul (1996a, b, 1999) observe some prima facie evidence for gapping in Chinese. I argue that the examples illustrated by Li and Paul are not canonical gapping sentences that are created by V-to-T movement; instead, I propose that they are empty verb sentences. Furthermore, I argue that Chinese has some gapping sentences that result from ATB movement from V to v (LPD). This paper identifies two types of gapping in natural languages: gapping derived by V-to-T movement and gapping derived to V-to-v movement. Consequently, gapping should not be an 'all or nothing' phenomenon. The data from Chinese affirm Johnson's (1994) theory of gapping that gapping occurs in those languages only with verb movement.

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