- Operator (linguistics)
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In linguistics, an operator is a special variety of determiner including the visible interrogatives, the quantifiers, and the hypothetical invisible pronoun denoted Op. Operators are differentiated from other determiners by their ability to produce topicalization and to have traces that "jump" over other trace chains.
In English, the wh-words are considered visible operators. Acceptance of invisible operators in syntactic theory has been justified on the basis of visible operators or topic markers in languages such as Japanese.
All operators are subject to the bijection principle, first proposed by Koopman and Sportiche: Every operator A'-binds exactly one variable and every variable is A'-bound by exactly one operator.
In classical government and binding theory, an operator is usually understood to be a wh-word or a quantifier in an A'-position.
Examples
- Who said he killed John?
- Everyone likes someone.
In the following example, the trace <t> of <a man> acts as the complement to the verb "shot", and the trace <o> of the operator <when> acts as a modifier to the entire verb phrase:
- There was a time <when> <a man> would have been shot <t> for such behavior <o>.
Example of an invisible, or non-overt, operator:
- John is easy [<Opi> PRO to please <ti>].
References
- Koopman, H., & Sportiche, D. (1982). Variables and the Bijection Principle. The Linguistic Review, 2, 139-60.
See also
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