This paper analyses phenomena of argument reduction with dative and reflexive clitics, as well as clitic doubling, in Bulgarian, arguing that both types of phenomena reflect values of what we call the Completedness Parameter, a cross-linguistically attested parameter involving a combination of diathesis and aspectual properties. For the representation of values relevant to this parameter, we introduce the construct of a (propositional) GESTALT, understood as follows: the gestalt of a sentence S is a conceptual model of the “situation-in-the-world” referred to by S, reflecting the perspective on this situation imposed by S, and aspectual and other properties induced by S.

This paper argues that pragmatic processes and syntactic constraints interact, that we can nevertheless retain the assumption that the natural language faculty is fully encapsulated, and that the problems posed by the phenomenon of gapping (bare argument ellipsis) can be resolved by analysing gapping as an instance of such interaction. A new model of language is sketched out, a model which is a formal reconstruction of assumptions about the language faculty and its relation to central cognitive processes made by Fodor. and Sperber and Wilson. A fragment is defined to cover pronominal anaphoric dependency and quantifier binding, and a new analysis of bare argument ellipsis (gapping) is presented.