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Focus and Ellipsis: a Generative Analysis of Pseudogapping and Other Elliptical Structures

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Focus and Ellipsis: a Generative Analysis of Pseudogapping and Other Elliptical Structures Focus and Ellipsis: A Generative Analysis of Pseudogapping and other Elliptical Structures Von der philosophisch-historischen Fakultät der Universität Stuttgart zur Erlangung der Würde eines Doktors der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) genehmigte Abhandlung Vorgelegt von Kirsten Gengel aus Balingen Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 12. Oktober 2007 Hauptberichterin: Prof. Dr. Artemis Alexiadou Mitberichter: Prof. Howard Lasnik PhD Institut für Linguistik/Anglistik der Universität Stuttgart 2007 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 6 Versicherung/Confirmation 9 Abstract 10 1. Introduction 14 1.1. The Data 14 1.2. Ellipsis in Generative Syntax 17 1.3. Pseudogapping: The Puzzle 19 1.4. Aims and Overview of the Dissertation 23 2. An Overview of the Data 29 2.1. Elliptical Structures in English 29 2.1.1. VP Ellipsis 29 2.1.2. Pseudogapping 30 2.1.3. Pseudogapping vs. VP Ellipsis 33 2.1.4. Gapping 35 2.1.5. Pseudogapping vs. Gapping 35 2.1.6. Sluicing, Fragment Answers, and Bare Argument Ellipsis 37 2.1.7. NP Ellipsis 38 2.2. Pseudogapping Cross-Linguistically 39 2.2.1. Pseudogapping in Icelandic, Norwegian, and Danish 40 2.2.2. Pseudogapping in Icelandic: Prepositional Remnants 43 2.2.2.1. Pseudogapping in the gefa verb class 43 2.2.2.2. Pseudogapping in the skila/ræna verb class 47 2.2.3. Pseudogapping in Portuguese 49 2.2.4. Pseudogapping in French 50 1 3. Previous Accounts of Pseudogapping 52 3.1. Pseudogapping as an instance of VP Ellipsis 52 3.1.1. A-Movement Analysis: Overt Object Shift 53 3.1.2. A-bar-Movement Analyses 56 3.1.2.1. Heavy NP Shift 56 3.1.2.2. Focus Movement 61 3.1.3. Hybrid Analyses 62 3.1.3.1. Dutch Scrambling 63 3.1.3.2. The Eclectic Approach 65 3.2. Pseudogapping as an instance of Gapping 68 3.2.1. Across-the-Board-Movement 69 3.2.2. Sidewards Movement 70 3.3. The Cyclic Linearization Approach 72 3.4. Conclusion 74 4. EPP-driven Movement in Pseudogapping 75 4.1. EPP-driven Object Shift 75 4.2. The Optionality of the EPP for Objects 79 4.3. The Pseudogapping Derivation 82 4.4. Problems for the Object Shift Account of Pseudogapping 84 4.4.1. Scandinavian Object Shift and Object Shift in English 84 4.4.2. Structural Issues 90 4.4.3. The EPP for Objects is not uniform 96 4.5. Additional Evidence against Object Shift: Scandinavian Pseudogapping 97 4.6. Conclusion 102 5. Binding Effects and A-bar-Movement in Pseudogapping 103 5.1. Binding Relations between remnants in Pseudogapping 103 5.2. Reconstruction Effects 109 5.3. Parasitic Gap Licensing in Pseudogapping 111 5.4. Control in Pseudogapping 116 5.5. Binding Relations and A-bar-Movement 117 5.6. Pseudogapping Remnants derived via A-bar-Movement 119 5.6.1. Deriving direct object remnants in double object constructions 120 2 5.6.2. Deriving indirect object remnant PPs in dative constructions 121 5.6.3. Deriving Pseudogapping with multiple remnants in double object constructions 123 5.6.4. Deriving Pseudogapping with multiple remnants in dative constructions 124 5.7. Conclusion 126 6. Syntactic Focus Movement 127 6.1. The Role of Focus in A-Movement Accounts 128 6.2. Rightward A-bar-Movement: Heavy NP Shift 129 6.2.1. The Distribution of Heavy NP Shift and Pseudogapping remnants 129 6.2.2. Heavy NP Shift in the Hybrid Account of Pseudogapping 132 6.3. Syntactic Focus Movement from a Cross-linguistic Perspective 138 6.3.1. Hebrew 138 6.3.2. Italian 139 6.3.3. Hungarian 140 6.3.4. Malayalam 142 6.3.5. Syntactic Focus Movement in English 144 6.4. Syntactic Focus Movement in Korean Pseudogapping 146 6.5. Syntactic Focus Movement in English Pseudogapping 150 6.5.1. Prosodic Prominence in Ellipsis Constructions 151 6.5.2. Focus Effects in Pseudogapping: A Criticism of the Hybrid Approach 153 6.6. The Syntactic Derivation of English Pseudogapping 156 6.6.1. The Landing Site of Syntactic Focus Movement 156 6.6.2. Deriving direct object remnants and PPs in Pseudogapping 160 6.6.3. Deriving indirect object remnants in Pseudogapping 161 6.7. Exhaustivity and Contrast in Hungarian and English Focus Movement 165 6.7.1. Exhaustivity in Ellipsis Configurations 166 6.7.2. The Non-Identity (Contrastiveness) Requirement 167 6.7.3. Implementing Contrast: The Contrastivity Feature 167 6.8. Conclusion 168 7. The Semantics of Focus and Ellipsis 169 7.1. Focus on the Remnant: The Alternative Semantics Approach 169 7.1.1. The ~ Operator 171 7.1.2. The Focus Structure in Pseudogapping 173 3 7.2. The Treatment of Alternatives 174 7.2.1. The Ellipsis Problem (Kratzer 1991) 174 7.2.2. Indices and Alternatives in Ellipsis Structures 177 7.2.3. F-Marking and F-Indexing in Syntax 179 7.3. Licensing Deletion 183 7.3.1. Deaccenting and Deletion 183 7.3.2. The Isomorphism Condition 184 7.4. The Revised Focus Condition 191 7.4.1. Rooth’s Analysis (Rooth 1992 a, b) 191 7.4.2. Schwarzschild’s Analysis (Schwarzschild 1999) 194 7.4.3. E-Givenness (Merchant 2001) 196 7.4.4. E-Givenness and Contrast 200 7.5. Problems for the Revised Focus Condition 202 7.5.1. E-Givenness and Argument Alternations 203 7.5.2. E-Givenness and F-Marking 206 7.5.3. Reconsidering E-Givenness 208 7.5.4. Rephrasing the E-Givenness Condition 210 7.6. Conclusion 211 8. The Deletion Process 212 8.1. The Definition of the E-Feature 213 8.1.1. Features licensing Ellipsis 213 8.1.2. The Semantics of the E-Feature 214 8.1.3. The Phonology of the E-Feature 215 8.2. The E-Feature in different Elliptical Structures 216 8.2.1. The E-Feature in Sluicing 216 8.2.2. The E-Feature in Fragments 218 8.2.3. The E-Feature in VP Ellipsis 219 8.2.4. The E-Feature in Pseudogapping 219 8.3. The E-Feature, E-Feature Raising, and Verb Raising 220 8.3.1. Feature Raising of the E-Feature 220 8.3.2. The E-Feature and Verb Raising 221 8.4. The E-Feature and Focus 226 8.5. The E-Feature and the ~ Operator 228 4 8.6. The Size of the Elided Phrase 230 8.6.1. Phase-Based Deletion at the vP Level 230 8.6.2. Phase-Based Deletion at the CP Level 236 8.7. Auxiliaries and Deletion 236 8.7.1. Multiple Auxiliaries in VP Ellipsis 237 8.7.2. Structural Problems 238 8.7.3. The Principle of MaxElide 239 8.7.4. MaxElide in Pseudogapping 240 8.7.5. MaxElide and Deaccenting 242 8.8. Repair by Deletion 243 8.9. Conclusion 245 9. Movement and Deletion: A Uniform Account of Ellipsis 247 9.1. Pseudogapping 247 9.2. VP Ellipsis 248 9.3. Voice Alternations in Ellipsis 249 9.3.1. VP and vP as Targets of Deletion in Ellipsis and Pseudogapping 251 9.3.2. vP (and not VP) as Target of Deletion in VP Ellipsis (Johnson 2004) 254 9.4. Sluicing and Fragment Answers 258 9.5. Island Effects in Ellipsis 262 9.6. Gapping 271 9.7. NP Ellipsis 282 9.7.1. A Focus Projection in DP 283 9.7.2. Phase-Based Deletion in the DP 285 9.8. Conclusion 286 10. Conclusion 287 References 291 Appendix: German Abstract 302 5 Acknowledgements A few years back, shortly before I began my dissertation project, a former flatmate of mine, a non-linguist, tried to explain to somebody else what I was doing: “She is looking for something that is not there – and I think she found it!” This very much summarises what writing a dissertation on ellipsis, notably on Pseudogapping, sometimes felt like: investigating a construction that proved highly elusive when confronted with the standard tools of generative grammar and minimalism. In the end, I opted for a compromise, which consisted of giving Pseudogapping its own, proper derivation that it seemed to claim, a strategy that is in the tradition of many researchers before me. But at the same time, I aimed at making this special process as general as possible, so as to make it account for other instances of ellipsis as well. The result of this enterprise is presented in this dissertation. This result, that is, this dissertation, would never have been possible if it had not been for a number of people, to which I now acknowledge my debts, which are numerous, and huge. First and foremost, I wish to thank my supervisor, Artemis Alexiadou, for all her support, theoretical, and moral, over the last three years. I don’t know for the life of me how she managed to maintain some ‘control’ (in a good sense!) of my quicksilver mind, to keep me on track to make this dissertation possible, and as I hope, a good one. If it had not been for her support in times that were a bit rough, and her invaluable theoretical feedback throughout, this dissertation would never have been feasible. I was fortunate to have a supervisor who not only has an extremely profound understanding of theoretical matters in linguistics, as far as I can judge, but also has the gift of presenting problems that arise in a crystal clear way. Undoubtedly, whatever depth of reasoning and understanding I have achieved in the course of this dissertation is largely due to her teaching.
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