Book contents
- Continuing Syntax
- Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
- Continuing Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Configuration and Hierarchy
- Part II Locality
- 10 Wh-Movement: Unbounded Dependencies, Islands, Subjacency and Barriers
- 11 Covert Movement, Copy Theory and Reconstruction
- 12 Phases and Phase Impenetrability
- 13 Types of Locality: Phases and Relativised Minimality
- 14 The Syntax of Silence I: Ellipsis
- 15 The Syntax of Silence II: Empty Pronouns
- 16 Wrapping up: Parameters, Features and Futures
- Glossary
- Book part
- Index
- References
14 - The Syntax of Silence I: Ellipsis
from Part II - Locality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2025
Book contents
- Continuing Syntax
- Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
- Continuing Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Configuration and Hierarchy
- Part II Locality
- 10 Wh-Movement: Unbounded Dependencies, Islands, Subjacency and Barriers
- 11 Covert Movement, Copy Theory and Reconstruction
- 12 Phases and Phase Impenetrability
- 13 Types of Locality: Phases and Relativised Minimality
- 14 The Syntax of Silence I: Ellipsis
- 15 The Syntax of Silence II: Empty Pronouns
- 16 Wrapping up: Parameters, Features and Futures
- Glossary
- Book part
- Index
- References
Summary
In this chapter we observe that syntax is mostly silent; given the overall organisation of the grammar, there are good reasons to expect this to be the case. Furthermore, among the silent elements there are, in addition to copies, empty pronouns and covert movement, various kinds of ellipsis. VP or predicate-ellipsis is quite rich in English, while NP-ellipsis is meagre. Ellipsis displays a number of departures from absolute identity of the antecedent and elided constituent, notably but not only sloppy readings and voice mismatches. We also look at the distinction between deep and surface anaphora and, following on from this, evidence that radical prodrop in East Asian languages appears to involve NP- or argument-ellipsis.
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- Continuing SyntaxHierarchy and Locality, pp. 272 - 289Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Primary Sources
Harwood, W. 2013. Being progressive is just a phase: Dividing the functional hierarchy. PhD dissertation, University of Ghent.Google Scholar
Johnson, K. 2001. What VP-ellipsis can do, and what it can’t, but not why. In Baltin, M. & Collins, C. (eds.), The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, 439–80.Google Scholar
Lasnik, H. 1995. Verbal morphology: Syntactic Structures meets the minimalist program. In Campos, Hector & Kempchinsky, Paula (eds.), Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 251–75.Google Scholar
Ross, J. R. 1969. Guess who? Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics Society 5(1): 252–86.Google Scholar
Thoms, G. 2018. Varieties of English. In van Craenenbroeck, J. & Temmerman, T. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ellipsis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1020–38.Google Scholar
Secondary Sources
Hankamer, J. & Sag, I.. 1976. Deep and surface anaphora. Linguistic Inquiry 7: 391–428.Google Scholar
Van Craenenbroeck, J. & Temmerman, T. (eds.), 2018. The Oxford Handbook of Ellipsis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, especially the editors’ Introduction and Chapter 2 by Jason Merchant. Chapters 28–38 present case studies of individual languages, which are of obvious interest if you know or like the relevant languages. See also in particular the chapters on predicate ellipsis (Albrecht & Harwood, Chapter 21) and nominal ellipsis (Saab, Chapter 22).Google Scholar
Barbosa, P. 2019. Pro as a minimal nP: Towards a unified approach to prodrop. Linguistic Inquiry 50: 487–526.Google Scholar
Li, Y.-H. A. 2017. Argument ellipsis and the structures of noun phrases. MS, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Tomioka, S. 2003. The semantics of Japanese null pronouns and its cross-linguistic implications. In Schwabe, Kerstin & Winkler, Susanne (eds.), The Interfaces: Deriving and interpreting omitted structures. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 321–40.Google Scholar
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