Missing objects as Topic Drop

•Missing objects in Russian and Hebrew are analyzed as unvalued feature bundles.•Unvalued feature bundles are valued through access to an antecedent topic.•Language variation follows from idiosyncratic morpho-phonological and IS properties.

In this paper we argue that missing objects are to be analyzed in Information Structure terms as missing ‘continued’ topics referred to here as Topic Drop. We employ two cases to argue for this claim. First we show that missing objects in Russian adverbial gerunds are to be analyzed as Topic Drop rather than as Parasitic Gaps. Similarly, Topic Drop is solely responsible for the missing object in Hebrew structures which have also received structural analyses involving VP-ellipsis or a moved null operator. We argue against movement analyses of both constructions and propose that missing objects are to be analyzed as unvalued feature bundles that receive an interpretation from an available topic in the discourse.