Ellipsis as a Window Into the Nature of Grammatical Constraints

Monday, March 25, 3-4 p.m.

SN-2098

Presentation by Dr. Gesoel Mendes, Candidate for tenure-track position in Linguistics
*Abstract: *Grammatical restrictions are often divided into three types: (i) PF representational constraints, (ii) narrow-syntactic/derivational constraints, and (iii) LF representational constraints. I demonstrate how ellipsis, understood as PF-deletion, is a tool that we can use to situate restrictions within the grammar. The logic goes as follows: PF representational constraints can be repaired by deletion, whereas purely syntactic and LF representational constraints cannot be repaired by deletion. The main empirical domain under investigation is an extraction asymmetry found in Nupe, a Benue-Congo language of Nigeria. This extraction asymmetry arises in so-called “perfect islands”. Concretely, vP-internal material cannot be A’-extracted in the presence of a perfect marker, whereas elements outside the vP-domain can be A’-extracted freely. I demonstrate that this restriction can be repaired by ellipsis, which implies that perfect islands arise due to PF issues. I argue that perfect island effects are the result of conflicting linearization instructions, which are neutralized in elliptical environments. These results from Nupe are part of a larger research project whose main goal is to understand the nature of grammatical restrictions by investigating how they interact with ellipsis.

Presented by Department of Linguistics

Event Listing 2024-03-25 15:00:00 2024-03-25 16:00:00 America/St_Johns Ellipsis as a Window Into the Nature of Grammatical Constraints Presentation by Dr. Gesoel Mendes, Candidate for tenure-track position in Linguistics *Abstract: *Grammatical restrictions are often divided into three types: (i) PF representational constraints, (ii) narrow-syntactic/derivational constraints, and (iii) LF representational constraints. I demonstrate how ellipsis, understood as PF-deletion, is a tool that we can use to situate restrictions within the grammar. The logic goes as follows: PF representational constraints can be repaired by deletion, whereas purely syntactic and LF representational constraints cannot be repaired by deletion. The main empirical domain under investigation is an extraction asymmetry found in Nupe, a Benue-Congo language of Nigeria. This extraction asymmetry arises in so-called “perfect islands”. Concretely, vP-internal material cannot be A’-extracted in the presence of a perfect marker, whereas elements outside the vP-domain can be A’-extracted freely. I demonstrate that this restriction can be repaired by ellipsis, which implies that perfect islands arise due to PF issues. I argue that perfect island effects are the result of conflicting linearization instructions, which are neutralized in elliptical environments. These results from Nupe are part of a larger research project whose main goal is to understand the nature of grammatical restrictions by investigating how they interact with ellipsis. SN-2098 Department of Linguistics