Missing-Object Constructions: Lexical and Constructional Variation

In missing object constructions, the subject of the matrix clause is construed as coreferent with a missing complement—a “gap”—in the complement to the predicate:

Cross-linguistically, missing object constructions are sometimes analyzed as involving long-distance dependencies, similar to the dependencies found in wh-question or relative clause constructions. Other missing object constructions have been analyzed as involving complex predicate formation. We propose that both classes of missing object constructions are found in English, exemplified by the canonical long-distance tough predicate and the short-distance need predicate. This difference in the syntactic structure of the two types of missing object constructions explains their very different syntactic behavior.