Operator (linguistics)

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In linguistics, an operator is a special variety of determiner including (in English) the visible interrogatives (wh-words) and the hypothetical invisible pronoun "OP".^{[citation needed]}

Operators are differentiated from other determiners by their ability to produce topicalization and to have traces that "jump" over other trace chains.^{[citation needed]}

There was a time <when> <a man> would have been shot <t> for such behavior <o>

in which a trace of "a man" acts as complement to the verb "shot" and a trace of "when" acts as modifier to the entire "shot" verb phrase, in addition to the "for such behavior" modifier already present.

[edit] Visible Operators

In English, the interrogatives are considered visible operators, including who/whom, what, where, when, why, which and how. Older forms of English would add whence, whither, and whether.

[edit] Invisible 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.^{[citation needed]}