Deficient heads and (non-)licensing

This paper investigates constructions in Japanese that lack matrix verb and tense, particularly focusing on a type of quotative construction. It is observed that verbless quotative constructions have three unique properties (i.e. no verb, no case and no flexible word order). A unified analysis is given to explain these three properties: verbless quotative constructions involve a functional head that is inert for feature-driven operations. The reason for missing verbs is also investigated. It is argued that there is a deletion operation that elides the features irrelevant at LF (i.e. [uninterpretable] features and phonological features).