On Chinese And English PRO

This thesis aims to explore the property distribution and reference of one of the empty categories: PRO.Empty category refers to a certain type of noun phrases which exists in the deep structure of human language but does not have any phonetic realization in the surface structure. Since Chomsky put forward the Government and Binding Theory in the 1980's, a lot of research has been devoted to empty category in different languages. The further study of empty category, including PRO may help us better understand the properties of semantic and syntactic representations and the nature of human languages, meanwhile, it is also very valuable to the acquisition of second language.Chapter one is a brief introduction of Chomsky's Government and Binding Theory, based on the introduction, I also give a brief account of the Control Theory which may account for the reference properties of PRO.In chapter two, I mainly review the study on Chinese PRO by several linguists. The first is James Huang, who argues that Chinese is a pro-drop language and that pro and PRO may be classified as one type of empty category as far as its reference is concerned, he also turns to Rizzi's Generalized Control Theory to account for the reference of PRO in Chinese.. Xu Liejiong insists that the empty category in Chinese is different from that in English, it is Free Empty Category whose reference is free. Sheng Yang bases his research on the GB theory but classifies empty category in Chinese into three different types: Proform, trace and ellipsis. In order to give a full account of the different reference properties of PRO, he classifies the Chinese verbs into different types.In chapter three, the property, distribution and reference of PRO in English is discussed. In English, PRO exists in the non-finite clauses and the non-finite clauses mainly consist of infinitive clauses and gerundive clauses. When PRO exists in the subject position of infinitive clauses and gerundive clauses which act as the subject of the matrix sentence, if the non-finite clauses are not base-generated, PRO co-index with the subject of the matrix clause, otherwise, its reference is arbitrary. But for PRO in the subject position of non-finite clauses which act as the object of matrix clause, the control properties of the matrix verb determine the reference of PRO, if the verb has the control property of [+subject control], PRO refers back to the subject of the matrix clause, if the verb has the control property of [+object control], PRO is controlled by the object of the matrix clause. But prepositions such as together, with may change the control relationship between PRO and its antecedent. When PRO exists in the subject position of adjunct non-finite clauses, PRO is usually controlled by the subject of the matrix sentence, but in this case, the control relation does not observe c-command condition.In chapter four, the distribution and reference of Chinese PRO is presented. In Chinese, PRO also exists in the subject position of non-finite clause although the criterion to differentiate finiteness and non-finiteness in Chinese is not the same as that in English. As far as the reference of PRO is concerned, PRO in the subject position of the sentential subject is controlled by the subject of the matrix clause when it is moved there but arbitrarily controlled when it is base-generated. PRO in the subject position of non-finite clause which acts as object of the matrix clause is controlled by the subject if the matrix verb has the control property [+subject control] but when the matrix verb has the control property [+object control], PRO is controlled by the object of the matrix clause. When used in the adjunct non-finite clause, PRO is controlled by the overt subject of the clause, but again, the control relation may not abide by the c-command condition. But the occurrence of PRO in the consecutive and bi-constituent structures may not be fixed, this is a big difference between Chinese PRO and English PRO.In chapter five, a conclusion is presented. Although there are some differences between Chinese PRO and English PRO, the theory concerning PRO which is based on English also applies to Chinese phenomenon.