A Survey of Ellipsis in Chinese Timothy Osborne Junying Liang Zhejiang University Zhejiang University Hangzhou Hangzhou China China [email protected] [email protected] see which ellipsis mechanisms are and are not Abstract present. The analysis of ellipsis pursued below is de- Much work on ellipsis has been conducted pendency-based, and the catena unit plays a cen- using data from English, and many widely tral role in the account. A catena is a word or acknowledged types of ellipsis exist in Eng- combination of words that are linked together by lish. The extent to which the named ellipsis dependencies (Osborne et al. 2012). Ellipsis me- mechanisms exist in other languages is, chanisms in English have been shown to elide though, often not clear. This manuscript sur- veys ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese using a catenae. The survey seeks to determine the extent dependency-based approach to syntax. It to which the catena is also the central unit for a probes to see which ellipsis mechanisms exist theory of ellipsis in Mandarin. in Mandarin. The survey demonstrates that This contribution thus pursues three goals: 1) gapping, stripping, pseudogapping, sluicing, provide an initial exploration of ellipsis in Man- and comparative deletion do not exist in darin, 2) determine the extent to which the catena Mandarin (or are highly restricted) and that unit can serve as the basis for a theory of Manda- VP-ellipsis, answer ellipsis, and N-ellipsis are rin ellipsis, and 3) consider what can be learned all arguably present. Furthermore, zero ana- about ellipsis in general from a comparison of phora is frequent in Mandarin, whereas it is ellipsis mechanisms across English and Manda- absent from English (or highly restricted). The catena unit is pillar of the account, since rin. the elided material of ellipsis is a catena. A word of caution is appropriate concerning the dependency hierarchies assumed for Manda- 1 An inventory of ellipsis mechanisms rin below. To our knowledge, many basic aspects of Mandarin sentence structure have not yet been The study of ellipsis recognizes numerous dis- worked out in theoretical detail from a DG pers- tinct types. The following mechanisms are pective. Basic questions about the dependency among the most commonly acknowledged: status of sentence-final particles, coverbs, de-constructions, classifiers, etc. have not been 1. Gapping debated from a DG perspective. Thus the validity 2. Stripping of many of the structures posited below is taken 3. Pseudogapping for granted. Future explorations into the depen- 4. Sluicing dency structures of Mandarin may motivate cor- 5. Comparative deletion rections to the dependency hierarchies for Man- darin posited below. 6. VP-ellipsis 7. Answer ellipsis 2 Gapping, stripping, pseudogapping 8. N-ellipsis Gapping, stripping, and pseudogapping have 9. Null complement anaphora been thoroughly explored (e.g. Jackedoff 1971, 10. Zero anaphora Kuno 1976, Stump 1977, Levin 1986, McCawley Excepting zero anaphora, these mechanisms oc- 1998). The following three sentences illustrate cur in English, and most of them are present in gapping, stripping, and pseudogapping in Eng- languages related to English. The extent to which lish: they exist in languages more distant from English is often not clear, however. This contribution surveys ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese, probing to 271 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Dependency Linguistics (Depling 2015), pages 271–280, Uppsala, Sweden, August 24–26 2015. (1) Should or should (6) líkāi-le líkāi-le I call you call you me Jō Lǐ yě Should I call you, or should you call me? *Jō líkāi-le, Lǐ yě líkāi-le. Jo leave-le Li also leave-le. (2) Intended: ‘Jo left, and Li also.’ Should or should (7) *Jō bìxū gōngzuò, Lǐ ye bìxū gōnzuò. I call you call Jo has.to work Li also has.to work. Jo her Intended: ‘Jo has to work, and Li too.’ Should I call Jo, or should you call her? Noteworthy about these failed attempts at gap- ping and stripping is the fact that Mandarin lacks (3) She should call me more than a direct equivalent to and for coordinating claus- should es. Perhaps the absence of such an element is a she call factor limiting the distribution of gapping and stripping, since these mechanisms are widely you acknowledged as occurring only in the she should call you. non-initial conjuncts of coordinated clauses. The following attempt at pseudogappng in Example (1) illustrates gapping, example (2) Mandarin also fails: stripping, and example (3) pseudogapping. Gap- ping and stripping occur in coordinate structures. (8) Nǐ yīngāi xué fǎyǔ, Pseudogapping can appear in subordinate clauses you should study French in the absence of coordination, but the pseudogap yīnggāi must find an antecedent – it cannot take a post- cedent. nǐ yě xué The elided material should…call in (1) and (2) déyǔ is a catena, and the word call in (3) is also a ca- *nǐ yě yīnggāi xué déyǔ. tena, a one-word catena. The fact that should you also should study German immediately dominates call is what makes the combination should…call a catena. The exam- Intended: ‘You should study French, and ples therefore deliver a sense of the importance you should study German, too.’ of the catena unit for the theory of ellipsis. There The data just produced demonstrate that gap- are, however, many details of the dependency ping, stripping, and pseudogapping are types of hierarchies shown in (1–3) that can be over- ellipsis that are either absent from Mandarin, or looked here, since they are not important for are much more restricted than in English. The surveying ellipsis in Mandarin. fact that examples involving both gapping and Turning to Mandarin, we see that these ellip- stripping are bad is not surprising since the two sis mechanisms are generally not possible. The are widely viewed as involving the same one el- following attempts at gapping fail: lipsis mechanism. Concerning the absence of pseudogapping (4) diǎn-le diǎn-le from Mandarin, however, the fact that it is not possible is more revealing. Pseudogapping be- Tā kāfēi tā chá haves like VP-ellipsis in certain ways, and like *Tā diǎn-le kāfēi, tā diǎn-le chá. gapping in other ways. It behaves like s/he ordered coffee s/he ordered tea VP-ellipsis mainly insofar as it is licensed by an Intended: 'He ordered coffee, and she tea.’ auxiliary verb just like VP-ellipsis, and it is like gapping insofar it involves a true “gap” with a (5) *Jō xǐhuān dàngāo, Lǐ xǐhuān qiǎokèlì. remnant, whereby the remnant must stand in Jo likes cake. Li likes chocolate contrast to the parallel constituent in the antece- Intended: ‘Jo likes cake, and Li chocolate.’ dent clause. Thus the absence of pseudogapping The following attempts at stripping in Mandarin verifies to an extent the insight that pseudogap- also fail: ping is at least somewhat related to gapping, 272 enough so that if a language disallows gapping speakers in a main clause, the acceptability and stripping, then it will also disallow pseudo- judgments are less robust: gapping. (11) A: Jō xǐhuān mǒu gè rén. Jo likes certain CL person 2 Sluicing ‘Jo likes a certain person.’ Sluicing (Ross 1969, Merchant 2001) typically xǐhuān elides everything from a clause except an inter- rogative expression (wh-element), e.g. Jō Shuí ? (9) They are hiding something, but a. B: – Jō `xǐhuān Shuí? ? won’t b. B: – Jō Xǐhuān shuí? Jo likes who they say (12) A: Lǐ zhèng cáng zài mǒu gè dìfang. what Li now hide in certain CL place are ‘Li is now hiding in a certain place.’ they hidingg cáng 1 they won’t say what they are hiding. Lǐ zhèng zài The clause introduced by what is sluiced, that is, Nǎr the string they are hiding is elided. Sluicing is a ? frequently occurring type of ellipsis mechanism, a. B: – Lǐ zhèng cáng zài Nǎr? and it exists in most if not all Indo-European Li now hide in where languages. b. B: – ?Lǐ zhèng Cáng zài nǎr? Checking to see if sluicing exists in Mandarin, Li now hide in where the data are not entirely clear. Consider the fol- While there is a preference for the b-questions, in lowing examples: which the verb is repeated, the a-questions are (10) Tā xǐhuān mǒu gè rén, dàn not clearly bad. This situation clouds the picture, s/he likes certain CL person, but since the marginal a-questions look like the ‘S/he likes a certain person, but’ sluicing in direct questions that is frequent in zhīdào those languages that have sluicing. One might, however, assume that what has actually been wǒmen bù shì elided from the a-questions is the auxiliary shì shuí ‘be’. On such an account, such examples would, a. wǒmen bù zhīdào shì shuí. strictly speaking, not count as instances of sluic- we not know be who ing as it is commonly understood. ‘we don’t know who it is.’ Further data speak more clearly against the presence of sluicing in Mandarin. Cases of b. *wǒmen bù zhīdào shì shuí. so-called multiple sluicing are bad in Mandarin. we not know be who Multiple sluicing occurs when the sluiced clause Example (10a), in which the verb shì ‘be’ ap- contains two or more wh-remnants. The follow- pears, cannot, strictly speaking, be interpreted as ing example illustrates multiple sluicing in Eng- sluicing because sluicing typically elides the do- lish: minate verb in a clause. When the dominant verb (13) A: Somebody has a crush on somebody? is indeed elided (here shì), the result is bad, as illustrated with example (10b). This fact suggests has that sluicing is not present in Mandarin.