The syntax of Dutch gapping

Abstract This article takes as its point of departure Neijt’s (1979) claim that gapping is a rule of syntax with properties also found in wh -movement constructions. I will refine this proposal by concluding that gapping remnants are A′-moved into the clause-initial position (SpecCP) and/or the specifiers of functional projections such as TopP, FocP and NegP found in the middle field of the clause. I will further show that this approach sheds new light on various problems (such as the distribution of modal and polarity particles) not satisfactorily solved in earlier analyses.