19 - Ellipsis phenomena

Summary

Ellipsis phenomena or deletions, in traditional generative terms involve a number of cases where otherwise expected material goes missing under some conditions. Predicate ellipsis can be roughly defined as a type of ellipsis in which the main predicate of the clause is missing. Clausal ellipsis can be defined as a subspecies of ellipsis whereby an entire clause is missing, including the canonical subject position and the agreement domain. In many languages, a head noun or nominal phrase can be missing from a nominal expression. It is important to distinguish nominal ellipses from nominalizations of adjectives. The analysis of elliptical phenomena can play a crucial role-pro or con- in arguments about the nature of syntactic representations, the role of syntax in meaning, and in the putative sometime absence of syntax from the mechanisms that generate propositional content even in the narrowest sense.