Ellipsis in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
Ellipsis in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar Jonathan Ginzburg and Philip Miller∗ Universite´ Paris Diderot, Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle (UMR 7110) and EA 3697 CLILLAC-ARP June 16, 2017 1 Introduction 1.1 General properties of ellipsis The characterizing feature of ellipsis is that elements of semantic content are obtained in the absence of any corresponding syntactic form. The syntax thus appears to be incomplete. More specifically, the implicit semantic content is recovered from elements of the linguistic and non-linguistic context. In this sense, ellipsis is similar to anaphora, except that there is no overt anaphoric element involved. The elements present in an elliptical clause are predicates, arguments or adjuncts of what is omitted. It is the presence of these elements that makes it possible to recognize the ellipsis. It is in principle always possible to reanalyse any elliptical phenomenon as a case of anaphora, either by hypothesizing an unpronounced pro-form in the elliptical site (zero-anaphora) or by considering the licenser to be anaphoric (e.g., considering the pre-elliptical auxiliary to be an anaphor in Verb Phrase ellipsis (VPE), cf., Schachter 1978; ∗This piece is dedicated to the memory of our friend, teacher, and collaborator, Ivan Sag. Ivan was originally intended as a co-author of this piece, but died before it was drafted. His inspiration and many ideas are evident, though the chapter is much the poorer due to his absence. We would like to thank Doug Arnold, Bob Borsley, Rui Chaves, Jong-Bok Kim, Jason Merchant, Franc¸ois Mouret, Stefan Muller,¨ Enric Vallduv´ı, and Tom Wasow, as well as two anonymous reviewers for comments on the first version.
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