The Syntax of Silence Sluicing, Islands, and the Theory of Ellipsis

by Merchant, Jason

• ISBN13: 9780199243730
• ISBN10: 0199243735
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A primary goal of contemporary theoretical linguistics is to develop a theory of the correspondence between sound (or gesture) and meaning. This sound-meaning correspondence breaks down completely in the case of ellipsis, and yet various forms of ellipsis are pervasive in natural language:words and phrases which should be in the linguistic signal go missing. How this should be possible is the focus of Jason Merchant's investigation. He focuses on the form of ellipsis known as sluicing, a common feature of interrogative clauses, such as in 'Sally's out hunting - guess what!'; and'Someone called, but I can't tell you who'. It is the most frequently found cross-linguistic form of ellipsis. Dr Merchant studies the phenomenon across twenty-four languages, and attempts to explain it in linguistic and behavioural terms.

Author Biography

Jason Merchant is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Linguistics, Northwestern University. He obtained his doctorate in 1999 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where in 1998 he received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. His research interests are syntactic theory (ellipsis, islands, and resumptives), formal semantics, the syntax-semantics interface, Germanic languages, Greek, and language typology.

Table of Contents

General Preface	ix
Preface	xi
Abbreviations	xiv
Introduction	1	(6)
Overview of the Book	7	(1)
Note to the Reader	8	(2)
Identity in Ellipsis: Focus and Isomorphism	10	(29)
Semantic Background	11	(2)
The Focus and Isomorphism Conditions	13	(6)
Problems for Isomorphism	19	(6)
The Revised Focus Condition and e-GIVENness	25	(12)
e-GIVENness in VP-Ellipsis	26	(3)
e-GIVENness in Sluicing	29	(8)
Summary	37	(2)
The Syntax of Sluicing	39	(47)
External Syntax: The Sluice as an Interrogative CP	40	(14)
Selection	41	(1)
Number Agreement	42	(1)
Case	42	(3)
Positional Distribution	45	(6)
German Wh-Stress Shift	51	(3)
Summary	54	(1)
Internal Syntax: The Hidden Structure of the Sluice	54	(28)
Licensing Conditions on IP-Ellipsis	55	(6)
The COMP Domain in Sluicing	61	(21)
Summary	82	(4)
Appendix: Wh-in-situ Languages	84	(2)
Islands and Form-Identity	86	(22)
Syntactic (`Strong') Islands in Sluicing	86	(3)
The Form-Identity Generalizations	89	(19)
Case-Matching	89	(2)
Preposition-Stranding	91	(17)
Deletio nata atque mortua	108	(51)
Ross (1969): Deletion and the Problem of Islands	108	(7)
Pseudosluicing	115	(13)
Initial Considerations	117	(3)
Contra the Equation `Sluicing = Pseudosluicing'	120	(7)
Summary	127	(1)
Sluicing ≠ WH-Op + Resumptive	128	(18)
Initial Considerations	129	(3)
Resumptivity and Case	132	(13)
Conclusions	145	(1)
Chung et al. (1995): IP Copy, Merger, and Sprouting	146	(6)
IP-Copy and A'-Chain Uniformity	152	(6)
Summary	158	(1)
Deletio redux	159	(71)
PF-Islands	163	(37)
Left-Branch Extractions	163	(20)
COMP-Trace Effects	183	(2)
Derived-Position Islands: Topicalizations and Subjects	185	(8)
Coordinate Structure Constraint I: The Conjunct Condition	193	(7)
Summary	200	(1)
E-Type Anaphora Under Sluicing	200	(8)
The Problem: A'-Traces under Sluicing	201	(3)
The Solution: `Vehicle Change' and E-Type Pronouns	204	(4)
Summary	208	(1)
Propositional Islands	208	(18)
Relative Clauses	208	(13)
Adjuncts and Sentential Subjects	221	(2)
Coordinate Structure Constraint II: Extraction out of a Conjunct	223	(3)
Selective (`Weak') Islands	226	(3)
Summary	229	(1)
Conclusion	230	(2)
References	232	(19)
Language Index	251	(2)
Name Index	253	(5)
Subject Index	258