What ellipsis can do for phases, and what it can't, but not why

The study of ellipsis, being a mismatch between form and meaning, has already proven to have consequences for our understanding of language in general, as it has helped us gain insights in other domains of the grammar. This paper focuses on one of these domains, namely the notion of Spell-Out and the theory of phases that has been developed within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, 2001, 2005). Several authors have been tempted to tie ellipsis to Phase Theory, as ellipsis would be non-pronunciation at PF instead of pronunciation. In other words, ellipsis is the flip coin of Spell-Out, and t... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Aelbrecht, Lobke
Dokumenttyp: journalarticle
Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
Verlag/Hrsg.: Mouton De Gruyter
Schlagwörter: Languages and Literatures / syntax / English / Dutch / phases / modal verbs / ellipsis
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29033299
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/5760536

The study of ellipsis, being a mismatch between form and meaning, has already proven to have consequences for our understanding of language in general, as it has helped us gain insights in other domains of the grammar. This paper focuses on one of these domains, namely the notion of Spell-Out and the theory of phases that has been developed within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, 2001, 2005). Several authors have been tempted to tie ellipsis to Phase Theory, as ellipsis would be non-pronunciation at PF instead of pronunciation. In other words, ellipsis is the flip coin of Spell-Out, and the two differ only at PF. Although attractive, this proposal will be pointed out to run into empirical problems with regards to extraction possibilities. The data suggest that the difference between ellipsis and non-ellipsis is not simply decided at PF, but in the syntax already. At the same time, however, this paper aims to maintain the intuition behind the link between ellipsis and phases. It explores the chunks of structure that are targeted by both operations as well as their triggers.