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In linguistics, an empty category, which may also be referred to as a covert category, is an element in the study of syntax that does not have any phonological content and is therefore unpronounced. Empty categories exist in contrast to overt categories which are pronounced. When representing empty categories in tree structures, linguists use a null symbol (∅) to depict the idea that there is a mental category at the level being represented, even if the word(s) are being left out of overt speech. The phenomenon was named and outlined by Noam Chomsky in his 1981 LGB framework, and serves to address apparent violations of locality of selection — there are different types of empty categories that each appear to account for locality violations in different environments. Empty categories are present in most of the world's languages, although different languages allow for different categories to be empty. While the classical theory recognizes four types of null DPs (DP-trace, WH-trace, PRO, and pro), recent research has found evidence for null DPs that don't appear to fit the classical model such as the distinction of null subjects and null objects. In the classical theory model, empty (or null) DPs can be broken down into four main types: DP-trace, WH-trace, PRO, and pro. Each appears in a specific environment, and is further differentiated by two binding features: the anaphoric feature [a] and the pronominal feature [p]. The four possible interactions of plus or minus values for these features yield the four types of null DPs. In the table, [+a] means that the particular element must be bound within its governing category. [+p] means that the empty category is taking the place of an overt pronoun. Having a negative value for a specific feature indicates that a particular type of null DP is not subject to the requirements of the feature. Not all empty categories enter the derivation of a sentence at the same point. Both DP-trace and WH-trace, as well as all the null heads, are only generated as the result of movement operations.

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Related concepts (7)

Empty category

Extended projection principle

The extended projection principle (EPP) is a linguistic hypothesis about subjects. It was proposed by Noam Chomsky as an addendum to the projection principle. The basic idea of the EPP is that clauses must contain a noun phrase or determiner phrase in the subject position (i.e. in the specifier of a tense phrase or inflectional phrase or in the specifier of a verb phrase in languages in which subjects don't raise to TP/IP, e.g. Welsh). Most verbs require meaningful subjects—for example, "kick" in "Tom kicked the ball" takes the subject "Tom".

Complementizer

In linguistics (especially generative grammar), a complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a sentence. For example, the word that may be called a complementizer in English sentences like Mary believes that it is raining. The concept of complementizers is specific to certain modern grammatical theories. In traditional grammar, such words are normally considered conjunctions.