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In:New Insights into Theoretical Syntax from Asian Languages: Studies in honor of C.-T. James Huang
Edited by Andrew Simpson
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 290] 2026
► pp. 406–435

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Complements in noun phrases?

 | University of Southern California
Published online: 15 January 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.290.16li
Abstract
Whether pre-nominal clauses in Chinese need to be distinguished into different types has been controversial — should there be a distinction between gapped versus gapless, complement versus adjunct? Some argue that all pre-nominal clauses belong to the same category, like the proposals claiming that they are all relative clauses containing gaps (variables). However, this study highlights clear examples where gaps are syntactically impossible in pre-nominal clauses. These gapless clauses behave differently from the gapped ones, forcing the recognition of different types of pre-nominal clauses. Nonetheless, while the gapless clauses exhibit many characteristics of complements, they are not directly adjacent to the lexical noun (N). Instead, they are related to larger projections containing functional heads above the noun. This finding has important implications for how we define “complements” and how complements differ from non-complement structures.
Article outline
  • 1.Main facts
  • 2.Complement tests
    • 2.1Tests distinguishing complements from non-complements
    • 2.2Against the complement tests
      • 2.2.1Order restriction
      • 2.2.2Head nominal restriction
      • 2.2.3Iteration restriction
      • 2.2.4Ellipsis restriction
      • 2.2.5Nominalization restriction
      • 2.2.6Locality restriction
      • 2.2.7Coordination restriction
    • 2.3Complications on defining relevant data sets
  • 3.Cases least likely to be analyzed as gapped relatives
  • 4.Conclusion and implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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