Ellipsis has been, and continues to be, of both theoretical and empirical interest. It affects the syntax of phrases or clauses by stranding their various constituents but keeps the semantics of the stranded constituents identical to that of their non-elliptical counterparts. The theoretical value of ellipsis lies, therefore, in the relationship between meaning and form that it encodes, such that a complete propositional meaning is paired with what appears to be a syntactically incomplete form. This property of ellipsis has inspired researchers to probe, in particular, the syntax of ellipsis and the role the surrounding context plays in helping resolve ellipsis, as stranded constituents depend on the surrounding context for their interpretation. Among the constructions that have attracted considerable attention over the years are clausal ellipsis (e.g. sluicing (Example 1), sprouting (Example 2), stripping (Example 3), and fragments (Example 4)), pseudogapping (Example 5), gapping (Example 6), and Right Node Raising (RNR) (Example 7), all of which are discussed in the contributions to this special issue.

This paper addresses a serious challenge to some recent semantic accounts of quotation: the existence of ‘non-constituent hybrid quotations’, as in Vera said she was ‘very happy and incredibly relieved’ by the supreme court’s decision. These pose a threat to theories that have to make the assumption that hybrid quotations must be co-extensive with syntactic constituents. Responses to the challenge have been proposed, first a quote-breaking procedure, and subsequently unquotation. I argue that these responses fall short of providing empirically satisfactory accounts of the phenomena. Other theories of quotation are not under threat of non-constituent hybrid quotations. I single out a particular family of theories, depiction theories, which have the added advantage of doing justice to the core mechanisms at the heart of quoting.

This paper develops Ramchand’s first phase syntax theory by investigating the Mandarin directional serial verb construction. Specifically, the position of the theme argument in these constructions is investigated, and two major word order variants are identified: the VOV type and the VVO type. The former are argued to be accomplishments, whereas the latter are achievements. The analysis embraces Ramchand’s spirit that three sub-eventive projections (InitP, ProcP, and ResP) exist universally as the basic building blocks in the first-phase syntax, and it proposes that the surface word order alternation and situation type shift is the consequence of the occurrence/absence of the ResP and the different insertion position of the directional morphemes.

This paper investigates aspectual meanings that resultative morphemes in Mandarin Chinese contribute to interpretations of the entire predicates, and in particular the culmination readings they bring out of the originally non-culminating accomplishments. Two resultative morphemes are studied: -wán and -diào. I argue that while both morphemes give rise to culmination readings, the culmination readings are derived in different ways. I propose that -wán expresses termination, which comments on the progress of an event. The culmination readings of the telicized accomplishments by -wán are obtained indirectly. By contrast, -diào expresses culmination, commenting directly on the resulting culmination state. The proposed analysis for the two morphemes is couched in the framework defined by Krifka (1989, 1992, 1998), which models the relations between events, individuals, and times as a series of homomorphic relations between mereological part structures. Following Zucchi & White (2001), I analyze -diào in terms of a maximalization over patient, which transfers mereological properties from the individual structure to the event structure, explaining the culmination reading, and -wán a maximalization over time, which transfers mereological properties from the time structure to the event structure, explaining termination, and then transfers the mereological properties to the individual structure, explaining the culmination reading.

For both children and adults, communicating with each other effectively depends on having enough knowledge about particular entities, actions, or relations to understand and produce the words being used. Speakers draw on conventional meanings shared with their interlocutors, but do they share every detail of word meaning? They need not have identical, or fully specified, representations for the meanings of all the terms they make use of. Rather, they need only have represented enough about the meanings of the words used by another speaker to understand what is intended in context on a particular occasion. Reliance on partial meanings is common in both children and adults. More detailed, shared, representations of word meanings for a domain depend on acquiring additional knowledge about that domain and its contents.

This paper aims to fill in a long missing piece in the paradigmatic word-formation research: a set of rival affixes whose members are differentiated in meaning. We argue that such a set can be found in English derivational adjectivalization, in the affixal rivalry between the adjectivalizing suffixes -ed and -y. Using the traditional method of doublet comparison (Aronoff 1976, 2020), we reveal that adjectives of the form Xed and those of the form Xy (X standing for the source word) differ in the scale type. Xed adjectives are closed-scale adjectives, but Xy adjectives are totally open-scale adjectives. The scale-type difference explains why Xed adjectives combine with certain degree modifiers, whereas Xy adjectives do not. Furthermore, we show that the rival affixes are doubly differentiated in the deverbal domain in terms of the said output scale type and the input base selection. In this domain, the major sources of the closed-scale -ed adjectives and the open-scale -y adjectives are result and manner verbs, respectively.

The relationship between the wh-remnant and the null correlate in the type of ellipsis known as backward sprouting is superficially almost identical to the relation between a wh-filler and a gap in a wh-question. In both cases, there is a dependency between the wh-phrase and a later null element. We conduct a sentence acceptability experiment to test whether the remnant–correlate dependency in backward sprouting exhibits two well-known properties of a filler–gap dependency in wh-questions: sensitivity to clause boundaries (distance) and sensitivity to islands. The results show that both dependency types are sensitive to clause boundaries, although the effect is larger in the case of filler–gap dependencies, but that only filler–gap dependencies are sensitive to islands. These results present a challenge to analyses of sprouting in which the ellipsis site contains a full representation of the structure of the antecedent clause, since such analyses predict island-sensitivity for remnant–correlate dependencies. The results also suggest that island-sensitivity cannot be reduced to simple processing demands without regard to the syntactic representation of the dependency, since such a view would predict greater similarity between filler–gap dependencies and remnant–correlate dependencies than is found.

Harmonic Serialism is a serial version of Optimality Theory in which Gen is restricted to one operation at a time. What constitutes one operation has been a key question in the literature. This paper asks whether shift, in which a feature moves/flops from one segment to another, should be considered an operation. We review three pieces of evidence that suggest so. We show that only the one-step shift analysis can capture the tonal patterns in Kibondei and the segmental patterns in Halkomelem; grammars that rely on spreading or floating features cannot. We complement these findings with a factorial typology in which the one-step shifting grammars predict several attested patterns that the grammars without one-step shift cannot. We conclude that shift must be a single operation in Harmonic Serialism.

Among various types of nominal phrases, the appositive construction has long been a relatively under-researched subject in the literature of Chinese linguistics. This paper centers on the use of the appositive construction [P(ronoun)-Num(eral)-Cl(assifier)-Nominal Phrase (NP)] in Mandarin Chinese. Upon revealing a series of asymmetries in syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, this paper proposes an attributional versus identificational distinction for Chinese appositives. Specifically, for the attributional case, the apposition (i.e. [Num-Cl-NP]) is property-denoting and serves to rationalize the speaker’s evaluation about the referent denoted by the anchor (i.e. the P); for the identificational case, the apposition is individual-denoting and serves to facilitate referent identification of the anchor by picking out an identifiable quantified set of discourse referents from the given context. To formally capture this distinction, this paper develops a dichotomous analysis for the syntax of Chinese appositives. The non-unified treatment not only offers an effective explanation for the asymmetries exhibited by the appositives under different cases, but also contributes to a better understanding of Chinese appositives in general.

The so-called aggressively non-D-linked construction (ANDC) involving wh-the-hell phrases like what the hell is of empirical and theoretical interest due to its complex morphosyntactic and semantic/pragmatic properties. This paper focuses on the construction in general as well as in ellipsis phenomena. We first explore its grammatical properties on the basis of attested corpus data and show that the construction can occur more widely in elliptical constructions than suggested by previous literature. We then suggest that the licensing conditions of the ANDC in ellipsis are not solely syntax-based but due to tight interactions among a variety of grammatical components such as morphosyntax, semantics, and discourse/pragmatics. We also argue that the authentic uses of the construction favor a Direct Interpretation (DI) approach that can account for its uses in a variety of environments.

This article has two goals: descriptive and theoretical. On the descriptive side, the article presents a grammar of gliding and epenthesis of Upper Sorbian. The descriptive goal is worthy because Upper Sorbian has a highly complex but regular and productive system of gliding and epenthesis. Upper Sorbian stands out from a typological point of view because it has ten [sic] different strategies to satisfy Onset.

On the theoretical side, the question is whether Optimality Theory that has been designed to solve conspiracies can deal with the complexities of Upper Sorbian. The answer is that it cannot unless it is modified to admit derivational levels. A point of interest is that level 1 in Upper Sorbian must be defined as the root level, not as the expected stem level that includes roots and affixes. Further, it is demonstrated that Itô and Mester’s Crisp Edge constraint makes wrong predictions for Upper Sorbian, so a new constraint, Multi, is postulated. Also, the analysis bears on the issue of positional markedness versus positional faithfulness and the question of whether Duke of York derivations should be admitted in phonology.

Clinical linguistic diversity extends far beyond ‘specific language’ disorders, such as acquired aphasia or specific language impairment (SLI), to a large range of mental disorders that are not language-specific. As cognitive impairments are involved in the latter, models with an integrated approach to language and cognition can be useful for understanding and classifying the variation in question. The aim of this paper is to specify such a model, called the Bridge model, which views linguistic cognition as resting on two partially pre-linguistic pillars: (i) perceptual categorisation and (ii) social-communicative interaction. Grammar acting as a bridge crossing between them mediates the lexicalisation of perceptual categories and, based on these, new forms of social interaction and communication conveying thought structured by grammar. This model allows to conceptualise mental disorders as different ways in which this integrated linguistic-cognitive phenotype can deviate from its normal course. We illustrate our general model for the specific instance of language variation within autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

In recent experimental work, arguments for or against Condition C reconstruction in A′-movement have been based on low/high availability of coreference in sentences with and without A′-movement. We argue that this reasoning is problematic: It involves arbitrary thresholds, and the results are potentially confounded by the different surface orders of the compared structures and non-syntactic factors. We present three experiments with designs that do not require defining thresholds of ‘low’ or ‘high’ coreference values. Instead, we focus on grammatical contrasts (wh-movement vs. relativization, subject vs. object wh-movement) and aim to identify and reduce confounds. The results show that reconstruction for A′-movement of DPs is not very robust in German, contra previous findings. Our results are compatible with the view that the surface order and non-syntactic factors (e.g. plausibility, referential accessibility of an R-expression) heavily influence coreference possibilities. Thus, the data argue against a theory that includes both reconstruction and a hard Condition C constraint. There is a residual contrast between sentences with subject/object movement, which is compatible with an account without reconstruction (and an additional non-syntactic factor) or an account with reconstruction (and a soft Condition C constraint).

Romance clitics are currently accounted for as DP arguments moved to functional head positions or as functional heads (AccVoice, etc.) licensing pro-DPs in argument position. I take the view that clitics are first merged as heads, projecting independently motivated categories on the functional spine of the sentence (φP, ApplP). I argue that they can satisfy theta relations without need for a pro associate. From an empirical point of view, a pure head syntax for clitics is favoured in explaining the asymmetries between clitics and phrases, found in several syntactically relevant domains (order, agreement, case). I show how the hypothesis that clitics are functional heads derives the internal order of the clitic string, which does not necessarily match (or mirror) that of phrasal constituents. I also consider agreement asymmetries (perfect participle agreement) and case asymmetries (in relation to Differential Object Marking).

This paper reports the results of two acceptability judgment experiments that examine the effect of PP remnants with mismatching correlates in the antecedent clause (either a PP, with a distinct preposition, or an NP) on the acceptability of pseudogapping as well as non-elliptical controls. Across both experiments, three novel findings emerge: First, utterances with mismatching PPs across the ellipsis clause and its antecedent were consistently degraded relative to their preposition-matched counterparts. Second, this mismatch penalty arose for elliptical and non-elliptical variants alike with only minor differences between the two. Finally, a significant portion of the mismatch penalties was explained away by the degree of semantic similarity between the thematic relations established by the mismatching prepositions with respect to the antecedent verb which was measured in a separate norming experiment. We examine the consequences of these new empirical results for current theories of pseudogapping, namely (i) the remnant-raising analysis, according to which the remnant XP is raised leftward out of the VP prior to VP ellipsis, licensed under identity with its antecedent; and (ii) the direct generation analysis, under which auxiliaries are verbal proforms that recover their referent anaphorically without the need for remnant movement or syntactic identity between the verb and its antecedent. We conclude that the data are more naturally accounted for under the direct generation approach.

In determining the metrical structure of quantitative poetic metres, heavy (i.e. long) syllables are usually associated with metrically strong positions. In this study, examining the case of Persian metres, I argue that the metres must be treated as temporal patterns in music, where research on rhythm perception has shown that the metrical strength of an event is not directly determined by the inter-onset interval following it but sensitive to the overall arrangement of the attack points. To identify metrically strong positions, I introduce a different method based on the performance practices of participants in the poetic tradition. The strength hierarchy is then used to offer constituency trees for the metrical forms and classify them. The structures identified for metrical forms are different from those suggested in previous accounts of Persian metres, in that they allow incomplete constituents at the left edges of metres. Building upon this general framework, a set of constraints chiefly based on well-known universal rhythmic tendencies is introduced and the Persian metre inventory is accounted for as emerging from the interaction of these constraints.

A major challenge presented by noun class systems of Senufo languages is the non-trivial interaction between the agreement features of the noun phrase and the noun class specification on the head noun. In Kafire (Senufo, Côte d’Ivoire), demonstratives normally agree with the head noun independent of whether or not the head noun is modified by adjectives. Some adjectives, however, are exceptions to the general rule: in their presence the demonstrative appears in Class 2 or 3 (depending on the adjective), and fails to agree with the head noun. We present an account of the exceptional behavior of such adjectives within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. We show that agreement in Kafire is a heterogeneous phenomenon that is best viewed as transitional between a system of semantically motivated agreement and a system of noun classes that is no longer dependent on meaning. Vestiges of the old system have been preserved in a variety of phenomena that have to be addressed individually using different kinds of formal tools provided by the framework. The variety of formal devices required to describe the functioning of the agreement system reflects the complex diachrony and the cross-modal (lexico-syntactic) synchronic nature of agreement phenomena.

This paper describes a perception experiment with L1 Polish and L1 English listeners on the affrication of initial English /tr/ and /dr/ (TR) consonant clusters. The goal was to test phonological predictions formulated within the Onset Prominence (OP) framework. OP offers two distinct structural configurations for representing rising sonority onset clusters. One predicts synchronous cluster articulation in English, giving rise to affrication, while the other predicts asynchronous cluster articulation in Polish. Two groups of listeners performed a two-alternative forced choice identification task on stimuli that included affricated clusters, unaffricated clusters, affricates, and CəC-initial words. For L1 English listeners, the unaffricated cluster-initial items induced the slowest responses. For L1 Polish listeners, the lack of affrication facilitated cluster identification, while the CəC-initial words induced the slowed responses. The results suggest cross-language interaction by which Polish listeners equate L1 unaffricated clusters with L2 CəC-initial words, in accordance with the OP proposal.

Some recent work has argued that agreement and case-assignment dependencies between a functional head and a nearby NP are not part of the syntactic derivation proper, but take place in the postsyntactic, morphological component of the grammar. I argue that this view is correct, by showing that one of its largely unexplored predictions has real empirical payout. The prediction is that the dependency-forming properties of functional heads, being morphological in nature, are mutable, and may be conditioned by nearby roots and functional structure. I focus here on Voice heads in Choctaw, and my starting assumption is that, by default, $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[+\mathrm{N}\right]} $ (the Voice head which introduces a specifier) agrees with its specifier (the external argument) and $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[-\mathrm{N}\right]} $ (i.e. specifier-less Voice, found in unaccusatives) does not agree with anything. However, I propose that in some environments, $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[-\mathrm{N}\right]} $ does launch a $ \phi $-probe, and it results in $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[-\mathrm{N}\right]} $ agreeing with the internal argument. I refer to these configurations as ‘low ergatives’. A small survey of previous work on case and agreement dependencies suggests (a) that the case-assignment properties of functional heads are mutable in the same way, and (b) that the reverse is attested – in some environments $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[+\mathrm{N}\right]} $ fails to launch a $ \phi $-probe. This is consistent with a purely morphological model of agreement and case-assignment: just as the exponence and interpretation of functional heads can be conditioned by adjacent roots and functional material, so too can the dependency-forming properties of those heads be conditioned in the same way.

This paper is concerned with case-matching effects under clausal ellipsis. We begin by considering available crosslinguistic data that indicate that variation in case marking on a fragment is delimited by the argument structure of the lexical head that assigns case to the fragment’s correlate in the antecedent clause. We then offer experimental evidence for a case-matching preference in Korean when a fragment and its correlate may differ in case marking. This case-matching preference corresponds to a known case of mandatory case-matching in Hungarian, but their relationship is not predicted by any of the existing syntactic accounts of case-matching effects under clausal ellipsis. We propose a novel perspective on fragments that derives case-matching effects, including optional and mandatory case matching, from the predictions of cue-based retrieval. Two further acceptability judgment studies are offered in support of our proposal.