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In this paper, we propose an analysis of pseudogapping in Hybrid Type-Logical Categorial Grammar (Hybrid TLCG; Kubota 2010,Kubota and Levine 2012). Pseudogapping poses a particularly challenging problem for previous analyses in both the transformational and nontransformational literature. The flexible notion of constituency countenanced in categorial grammar in general (including Hybrid TLCG) enables a simple analysis of pseudogapping that overcomes the problems for previous approaches. In addition, we show that Hybrid TLCG offers a useful platform for comparing different types of CG (and analytic ideas embodied in them) within a single framework with a linguist-friendly notation. In the context of an analysis of pseudogapping, this enables us to compare the adequacies of two types of treatments of discontinuous pseudogapping. We believe that this type of cross-framework comparison of different analytic ideas is useful for the purpose of testing the predictions of different types of analyses that can respectively be formulated in only one or the other of the more conservative types of CG.

The main aim of this article is to argue that Japanese allows verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis (VVPE). For this purpose, I examine data involving null adjuncts, and propose a new generalization about the distribution of null adjuncts, which can easily be accounted for if VVPE is available in Japanese. Furthermore, I demonstrate that null adjunct sentences with overt objects are subject to the same constraint as pseudogapping sentences in English are. Given that pseudogapping is a particular instance of VP-ellipsis (Jayaseelan, in Linguist Anal 20:64–81, 1990; Lasnik, in Papers on minimalist syntax, MIT working papers in linguistics, 1995, Fragments: Studies in ellipsis and gapping, 1999), this strongly suggests that null adjunct sentences involve VP-ellipsis.

This contribution considers how dependency grammars (DGs) view ellipsis phenomena. For the most part, comprehensive explorations of particular ellipsis phenomena are rare in the tradition of DG, but when ellipsis is examined, there is a tendency to posit the existence of null material/nodes to accommodate aspects of ellipsis. One recent development in the DG tradition that is particularly relevant to the analysis of ellipsis is the catena unit. A catena is a word or combination of words that are linked together by dependencies. Most ellipsis phenomena are eliding catena, whereby these catenae are often not constituents. Given the catena unit, a more economical approach to ellipsis has become possible, one that does not need to resort to movement to vacate the remnant from the encompassing constituent before that encompassing constituent is elided.

Timothy Osborne has surveyed a very large number of published introductions to grammatical analysis, all of which share the assumption that syntactic argumentation is to be conducted without reference to the meanings, uses and contexts of the example sentences. The purpose of Osborne’s article is to examine how well syntactic tests identify subphrasal strings as constituents. The aim of this discussion note is not to engage directly with this issue but to consider, from the viewpoint of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), the validity of the autonomous syntax assumption shared by Osborne and the authors whose work he considers. The note dwells on the hidden presence of functional and interactive notions in a methodology based on syntactic ‘tests’ and it is suggested that the difficulties encountered by that methodology (notably with regard to coordination) can be resolved insightfully by FDG with its four levels of analysis.

This paper considers the anaphoric status of the pro-form fer-ho (do it) in Catalan [This paper contains some ideas included in Busquets (2005)]. I discuss some anaphoric properties of fer-ho as DEEP ANAPHORA. I also compare these properties to those of other types of anaphora, like VPE and pseudogapping (PG). I show that its interpretation is strongly constrained by information and discourse structure.

Gapping and its related constructions have been defying a satisfactory analysis. Especially, scope relations and the very nature of coordination in Gapping have been challenging to a successful formulation of clause structure. Recently, Kim (2013) proposes an analysis of Gapping in Korean based on multidominance phrase structure. In this article, we will show a fundamental conceptual problem and some empirical potential problems with this analysis. As an alternative, we will support a Johnson-style analysis based on the ATP movement plus VP ellipsis for both English and Korean Gapping, which involves low VP coordination.

Verb Phrase Ellipsis, in particular, is taken to be very rare in languages other than English. However, recent literature has pointed out that a Verb Phrase Ellipsis-like construction does in fact exist in other languages, but may be masked due to the fact that the main verb raises to INFL in such languages, a process known as Verb Stranding Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VSVPE). This paper addresses two main issues: 1) whether such a construction in Hebrew patterns with VPE in English or with Pseudogapping; via an examination of voice mismatch tolerance following Merchant (2013) 2) After establishing that Hebrew is a VSVPE language and controlling for external variables such as independent object drop, this paper tests which constituent in particular is targeted in the ellipsis process. It is concluded that VSVPE languages target vP for ellipsis, not VP, nor PP, as opposed to recent accounts. In other words, they pattern with Pseudogappig in including higher constituents (vP, not VP) in the ellipsis) more than they do with VPE. Other Verb-Raising to INFL languages are predicted to behave similarly with respect to which constituent is targeted for ellipsis.

This squib argues against Merchant’s (2008) analysis of voice mismatches in VP-deletion and pseudogapping by pointing out that it makes a false prediction when extended to sentences in which more than one VP-deletion operation applies.

Elided VPs and their antecedent VPs can mismatch in voice, with passive VPs being elided under apparent identity with active antecedent VPs, and vice versa. Such voice mismatches are not allowed in any other kind of ellipsis, such as sluicing and other clausal ellipses. These latter facts appear to indicate that the identity relation in ellipsis is sensitive to syntactic form, not merely to semantic form. The VPellipsis facts fall into place if the head that determines voice is external to the phrase being elided, here argued to be vP; such an account can only be framed in approaches that allow syntactic features to be separated from the heads on which they are morphologically realized. Alternatives to this syntactic, articulated view of ellipsis and voice either undergenerate or overgenerate.

This paper introduces a novel unit of syntactic analysis, the catena (Latin for chain; plural catenae). The catena is defined in a dependency-based grammar as a word or a combination of words that is continuous with respect to dominance. According to this definition, any dependency tree or any subtree (complete or partial) of a dependency tree qualifies as a catena. The paper demonstrates that idioms are stored as catenae and that the elided material of ellipsis mechanisms (e.g., answer fragments, gapping, stripping, VP ellipsis, pseudogapping, sluicing, and comparative deletion) is a catena. Constituents are always catenae, but many catenae are not constituents. Based on the flexibility and utility of the catena concept, the claim is put forth and defended that the catena is the fundamental unit of syntax, not the constituent.

On the basis of an asymmetry between VP-deletion and pseudogapping, Merchant (2008a) concludes that ellipsis is conditioned by syntax. This article demonstrates that both pseudogapping and VP-deletion potentially allow voice mismatch. The unacceptable cases of voice mismatch in these constructions are attributed to a discourse factor (Kehler 2000, 2002). Nevertheless, since sluicing does not allow voice mismatch (Merchant 2001, 2007) even in the same context that allows voice mismatch in VP-ellipsis, Merchant's (2007, 2008a) conclusion is still valid. A syntactic condition on ellipsis is proposed, based on a semantic condition from Takahashi and Fox 2005. Kehler's discourse explanation is phrased in a revised format.

Pseudogapping is no misnomer. Despite their many tempting similarities, gapping and pseudogapping are distinct constructions. Pseudogapping is a special instance of VP-ellipsis, while gapping, I argue, is a special instance of across-the-board movement. Squeezing gapping into across-the-board movement has its own discomforts, however, which I suggest can be remedied by retailoring our syntax to include string-based output constraints. I sketch one such alteration that involves apparent Left Branch Condition violations.

Fragmentary utterances such as ‘short’ answers and subsentential XPs without linguistic antecedents are proposed to have fully sentential syntactic structures, subject to ellipsis. Ellipsis in these cases is preceded by A′-movement of the fragment to a clause-peripheral position; the combination of movement and ellipsis accounts for a wide range of connectivity and anti-connectivity effects in these structures. Fragment answers furthermore shed light on the nature of islands, and contrast with sluicing in triggering island effects; this is shown to follow from an articulated syntax and the PF theory of islands. Fragments without linguistic antecedents are argued to be compatible with an ellipsis analysis, and do not support direct interpretation approaches to these phenomena.

This paper argues that Principle A is not `an anywhere principle',contrary to Belletti and Rizzi (1988) and much subsequent work, but must apply relatively late in derivations, perhaps at the end of each phase (Chomsky 2000). Evidence comesprincipally from the analysis of pseudo-gapping, in which the ellipsis remnant isextracted to a position outside of the VP which deletes. Anaphors cannot appear asellipsis remnants when the antecedent is within the deleted material. The interaction ofanaphora and ellipsis is mirrored by restrictions on scrambling of anaphors in Dutchobject scrambling, and a unified analysis is proposed. The paper draws implicationsfor other theories of constituency, such as Phillips (1996), as well as for the A-status of the ellipsis remnant, contra Jayaseelan (1999). Given that the ellipsis remnant is focused, focus cannot be explicitly represented in syntactic representations, but rathermust be interpretive in nature.

It is shown that postulating a Focus Phrase above vP enables us to explain such diverse phenomena as the Malayalam question word's position contiguous to V, the ‘remnant’ in English pseudogapping, the clause-final ‘floated’ focus marker in English, and the position of the ‘cleft focus’ in English and Malayalam clefts. Assuming a Kaynean view of the underlying structure of SOV languages, we argue that the ‘canonical’ positions to which the verb's internal arguments are moved in these languages are above this Focus Phrase. Postulating an iterable Topic Phrase above the Focus Phrase (and above the ‘canonical’ positions in SOV languages) enables us to account for the definiteness/specificity constraints on clause-internal scrambling in Malayalam, German and Dutch, and on object shift in Scandinavian. Finally, it is shown that all the functions attributed to an ‘outer’ Spec position of vP are better fulfilled by the Topic/Focus positions above vP that we postulated.

Comparatives are among the most extensively investigatedconstructions in generative grammar, yet comparativesinvolving attributive adjectives have received a relativelysmall amount of attention. This paper investigates a complexarray of facts in this domain that shows that attributivecomparatives, unlike other comparatives, are well-formed onlyif some type of ellipsis operation applies within thecomparative clause. Incorporating data from English, Polish,Czech, Greek, and Bulgarian, we argue that these facts supporttwo important conclusions. First, violations of Ross's LeftBranch Condition that involve attributive modifiers should notbe accounted for in terms of constraints on LF representations(such as the Empty Category Principle), but rather in terms ofthe principle of Full Interpretation at the PF interface. Second,ellipsis must be analyzed as deletion of syntactic material fromthe phonological representation. In addition, we present newevidence from pseudogapping constructions that favors anarticulated syntax of attributive modification in which certaintypes of attributive modifiers may occur outside DP.

In this paper, we propose an analysis of pseudogapping in Hybrid Type-Logical Categorial Grammar (Hybrid TLCG; Kubota 2010,Kubota and Levine 2012). Pseudogapping poses a particularly challenging problem for previous analyses in both the transformational and nontransformational literature. The flexible notion of constituency countenanced in categorial grammar in general (including Hybrid TLCG) enables a simple analysis of pseudogapping that overcomes the problems for previous approaches. In addition, we show that Hybrid TLCG offers a useful platform for comparing different types of CG (and analytic ideas embodied in them) within a single framework with a linguist-friendly notation. In the context of an analysis of pseudogapping, this enables us to compare the adequacies of two types of treatments of discontinuous pseudogapping. We believe that this type of cross-framework comparison of different analytic ideas is useful for the purpose of testing the predictions of different types of analyses that can respectively be formulated in only one or the other of the more conservative types of CG.

These contrasts are typically thought to involve licensing conditions that the environment to the left of the ellipsis invoke. The contrast between (4a) and (4b), for instance, indicates that the ellipsis site must be in construction with, or perhaps governed by, a member of “Aux,” where these can be understood to be just those terms that are able occupy the highest of the functional projections which clauses are made up of. The modal, won’t, is an Aux, as is the infinitival to and the auxiliaries have, be and do in (5).

1. Preface (by Eguren, Luis) 2. Tensed modals (by Borgonovo, Claudia) 3. Weak Crossover, specificity and LF chains (by Falco, Michelangelo) 4. Conditions on sub-extraction (by Gallego, Angel J.) 5. Focus, exhaustivity, and deletion in English Pseudogapping (by Gengel, Kirsten) 6. Reconstruction and scope in exclamative sentences (by Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Raquel) 7. Reconstruction without movement (by Guilliot, Nicolas) 8. From polarity to modality: Some (a)symmetries between bien and si in Spanish (by Hernanz, M. Lluisa) 9. Beyond the Infinitive vs. Subjunctive Rivalry: Surviving changes in Mood (by Martin, Itziar San) 10. Romance infinitives with subjects, subjunctive obviation and Control Theory (by Sitaridou, Ioanna) 11. On the syntactic features of epistemic and root modals (by Zagona, Karen) 12. Subject index

The paper introduces a unit of syntax beyond the constituent called the chain. A number of mechanisms are shown to be sensitive to chains, e.g. the formation of predicates and idioms, the ellipses of gapping, pseudogapping and VP-ellipsis, and the elided material of stripping and answer fragments. The presentation is couched in a surface syntax, dependency-based framework, as opposed to a constituency-based one. While the chain can be defined in a manner consistent with constituency, doing so requires that one adopt some controversial assumptions about the nature of constituency structure. The potential of the chain concept is great; it is the tool necessary to address the manner in which semantic compositionality occurs in the syntax.

The papers of the volume mirror the ongoing debate on approaches towards two related topics: conjunction and ellipsis. The major issues are the syntactic relationship between the conjuncts, the syntactic category of the conjunction words, the size of the conjuncts, the syntactic and semantic status of the null elements, and semantic and information structural restrictions. A wide range of facts from various languages are explored in relation to phrasal coordination, Gapping, Pseudogapping, VP-ellipsis, and Sluicing.

We present a new method for characterizing the interpretive possibilities generated by elliptical constructions in natural language. Unlike previous analyses, which postulate ambiguity of interpretation or derivation in the full clause source of the ellipsis, our analysis requires no such hidden ambiguity. Further, the analysis follows relatively directly from an abstract statement of the ellipsis interpretation problem. It predicts correctly a wide range of interactions between ellipsis and other semantic phenomena such as quantifier scope and bound anaphora. Finally, although the analysis itself is stated nonprocedurally, it admits of a direct computational method for generating interpretations., Comment: 54 pages