Constituting Context: Null Objects in English Recipes Revisited. Emily Bender This paper considers the phenomenon of null objects in English and their contextually restricted distribution. I argue that earlier analyses of the phenomenon rely on a reified notion of context. I then articulate an alternative view of register in which it bears a constitutive relationship to context and explore the implications of the distribution of null objects for a competence theory of syntax. KEY WORDS: register, null objects, social construction, competence grammar