Not Voice but Case Identity in VP Ellipsis of English
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PACLIC 29 Not Voice but Case Identity in VP Ellipsis of English Myung-Kwan Park Sunjoo Choi Department of English Department of English College of Humanities College of Humanities Dongguk University Dongguk University Seoul, Korea Seoul, Korea [email protected] [email protected] holds for either direction of voice alternation Abstract between an elided constituent and its antecedent. This is illustrated in (1) through (3) ((1) and (3), This paper develops a Case/case-theoretic acco unt for what Merchant (2008) calls voice mism taken from Merchant (2008: 169-170); (2), taken atch in ellipsis constructions of English. Merch from Merchant (2013: 81)). ant (ibid.) reports that VP ellipsis as an elision o f smaller size VP allows voice mismatch, but Ps (1) Active antecedent, passive ellipsis (VPE) eudogapping and Sluicing as an elision of bigge r size vP/TP do not. However, Tanaka (2011) ar a. The janitor must <remove the trash1> whenever gues against Merchant's dichotomy in voice mis it is apparent that [it]1 should be [VP removed t1]. match between VP ellipsis and Pseudogapping, reporting that voice mismatch in both types of e Passive antecedent, active ellipsis (VPE) llipsis is permissible or not while interacting wi b. [The system] can be <used t > by anyone who th what Kehler (2000) calls discourse coherence 1 1 relations between ellipsis and antecedent clause wants to [VP use it1]. s. Departing from Kehler's (2000) insight, we s uggest that vP undergoes ellipsis in a resemblan (2) Sluicing (TPE) ce discourse relation, but VP does so in a cause/ *<Joe was murdered t>, but we don’t know effect discourse relation. Given the asymmetry i [who] 1 [TP t1 murdered Joe]. n the size of ellipsis in tandem with discourse re lations, we argue that since Accusative as well (3) Pseudogapping as Nominative Case is checked outside VP, the *Roses were brought by some, and others did VP to be elided can meet the identity condition bring lilies. on ellipsis with its antecedent VP as the object element in the former and the subject one in the latter or vice versus have not been Case-checke This paper examines the very issue of voice d yet, thus being identical in terms of Case-feat mismatch in the above three types of ellipsis in ure at the point of derivation building a VP. English. The next section reviews Merchant's (2007, 2008) analysis of voice mismatch in ellipsis by postulating the functional category of Voice in 1 Introduction the syntactic structure of a clause, and the subsequent rebuttal of Merchant's analysis by According to Merchant (2008), VP ellipsis (VPE) Tanaka (2011). Departing from the empirical in English allows mismatch between the voice of generalization made by Tanaka, section 3 proposes an elided constituent and that of its antecedent, a not Voice- but Case/case-theoretic account for whereas Sluicing and Pseudogapping do not. This apparent voice mismatch in VP ellipsis and 413 29th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation pages 413 - 421 Shanghai, China, October 30 - November 1, 2015 Copyright 2015 by Myungkwan Park and Sunjoo Choi PACLIC 29 Pseudogapping. Section 4 investigates argument does not matter for VP ellipsis, not being able to structure mismatch and its interaction with exert its effects on identity in ellipsis. Pseudogapping. Section 5 explores a Case/case- Though Merchant (2008) provides an effective theoretic account for voice mismatch in Sluicing. account for the distributional generalization in Section 6 wraps up with a conclusion. voice mismatch between VP ellipsis and Pseudogapping, his account confronts several 2 No asymmetry in voice match between problems. The first problem concerns the size of VP ellipsis and Pseudogapping ellipsis for Pseudogapping. The previous works on Pseudogapping such as Jayaseelan (1990), Lansnik Consider the examples in (4) and (5). It seems (1999: chap 3), Levin (1978), and Takahashi clear that voice mismatch is disallowed only in (2004) argue that Pseudogapping is an operation of some of elliptical structures like VP ellipsis, VP ellipsis rather than vP ellipsis, as typical Pseudogapping and Sluicing. Unlike in the ellipsis examples of Pseudogapping in (9) and (10) show. structure of (4), voice mismatch is permissible in the non-elliptical structure of (5). (9) *Roses were brought by some, and others did bring lilies. (4) *Roses were brought by some, and others did (10) *Some brought roses, and lilies were brought bring roses, too. by others. (5) Roses were brought by some, and others brought roses, too. Merchant (2008) in fact brings forth the examples in (11) and (12) to support his thesis that Merchant’s (2008) explanation for the contrast Pseudogapping applies to a larger category than in voice mismatch between VP ellipsis and VP ellipsis. The judgements reported in (11) and Pseudogapping in (1) and (2) hinges on the (12) are Merchant's. following assumptions: (6) Syntactic isomorphism is required for ellipsis. (11) Many of them have turned in their assignment (7) The v head hosts the feature [voi(ce)] already, but they haven’t yet all. responsible for active versus passive voice. (12) Many of them have turned in their assignment (8) VP ellipsis deletes a VP, but Pseudogapping already, but they haven’t yet (*all) their paper deletes a vP. (*all). Like most previous studies on ellipsis, Merchant assumes with Sportiche (1988) that a Merchant first takes ellipsis to be subject to a floating quantifier like all can be dropped off in the syntactic identity condition demanding that an specifier position of any functional category it has elided constituent be identical syntactically to its moved through. All in (11) presumably moves antecedent. Given syntactic isomorphism for through [spec, vP]. Since the constituent elided in ellipsis, the uneven distribution in voice mismatch VP ellipsis, by assumption, is smaller than vP and between VP ellipsis and Pseudogapping in (1) and all is external to ellipsis site, the sentence in (11) is (2) follows from the two specific components in received as acceptable. By contrast, the sentence in (7) and (8). Merchant (2008) argues that (12) involving Pseudogapping, according to Pseudogapping elides a vP rather than a VP. The Merchant, is ruled out because Pseudogapping elided constituent in Pseudogapping then includes elides a vP that includes the position all moves the little v that has the value of the feature [voi] through; thus, the floating quantifier all should determined either as active or passive. When the have been included in the portion elided by ellipsis and the antecedent clauses are not identical Pseudogapping. in voice, Pseudogapping won't meet identity in Tanaka (2011), however, consulted three native ellipsis, hence being ruled out. In VPE, however, speakers to verify the acceptability of (13) and the little v hosting the feature [voi] is not included (14), which are identical to (11) and (12), but in the VPE site. In other words, the head v is except for one modification by placing the external to the VPE site. Thus, voice mismatch aspectual adverb yet not before but after the 414 PACLIC 29 floating quantifier all: problem. (20) ?My problem will be looked into by Tom, but (13) Many of them have turned in their assignment he won’t look into yours. already, but they haven’t all yet. (14) ?Many of them have turned in their The additional pairs in (21)-(22), which are assignment already, but they haven’t all yet taken from Tanaka (2011: 476), do not display their paper asymmetry in voice mismatch between Pseudogapping and VP ellipsis: None of the native speakers that Tanaka consulted ruled out these two sentences. Tanaka (21) Actually, I have implemented a computer (2011) takes the acceptability of these examples to system with a manager, but it doesn’t have to indicate that both VP ellipsis and Pseudogapping be implemented with a manager. may delete a VP. It may also be the case that all in (22) ?Actually, I have implemented a computer (13) and (14) occupies a position outside a vP, in system with a manager, but it should have which case the entire vP can be deleted (See been implemented by a computer technician. Tanaka (2011: 473)). Second, Merchant (2008: 170) notes that such Third, the additional rebuttal of Merchant's Pseudogapping examples with voice mismatch as (2008) analysis comes from the experimental work (15)-(16) are unacceptable. by SanPietro et al. (2012: 309), who uses the following set of examples: (15) *Roses were brought by some, and others did bring lilies. (23) Jean was trying to sell her car. I know that (16) *Some brought roses, and lilies were brought someone bought it, by others. a. and Lisa knows who. (big, resemblance, matched) Importantly, however, Tanaka (2011: 475) b. and Lisa knows by who. reports that their VP ellipsis counterparts in (17)- (big, resemblance, mismatched) (18) are also unacceptable: c. because she told me who. (big, cause/effect, matched) (17) *Roses were brought by some boys, and some d. because she told me by who. girls did bring roses, too. (big, cause/effect, mismatched) (18) *Some brought roses, and lilies were brought e. and Lisa also knows that someone did. by some, too. (small, resemblance, matched) f. and Lisa also knows that it was. Since ungrammatical Pseudogapping examples (small, resemblance, mismatched) remain to be ungrammatical even under VP g. because she told me that someone did. ellipsis, it may safely be concluded that there is no (small, cause/effect, matched) asymmetry between the two constructions in terms h. because she told me that it was. of the size of ellipsis. (small, cause/effect, mismatched) Tanaka (2011: 476) also notes that the opposite situation also holds: If voice mismatch in VP The results of the experiment (cited from ellipsis is acceptable in a certain structure, that in SanPietro et al.