Grammatical silences from syntax to morphology: A model for the timing of ellipsis

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the mechanics of ellipsis at the syntax-morphology interface. It is shown that two of the adduced arguments against syntactic identity, namely, the distribution of traces within E-sites and certain types of inflectional mismatches, are illusory once phrasal ellipsis is explicitly defined as an operation of narrow syntax. On this theory, ellipsis bleeds vocabulary insertion at PF by deleting the variables that triggers late insertion of phonological material at PF. Phrasal copies and E-sites are both subject to ellipsis in this sense. The particular way in which these two silent objects interact explains why phrasal traces are irrelevant when it comes to calculating identity within a given E-site. This analysis not only answers well-known objections against syntactic identity but is also superior to competing semantic analyses in nontrivial ways. As for heads, it is proposed that they are subject to ellipsis at PF under identity and morphological locality. Among other important asymmetries between head and phrasal copies, this derives the lexical identity requirement in certain V-stranding VP-ellipsis languages (Goldberg 2005), even assuming syntactic head movement through adjunction. Finally, certain inflectional mismatches are derived by the syntactic nature of phrasal ellipsis and the timing of morphological operations. The broad picture is a model for the timing of ellipsis that covers not only surface anaphora, but other types of grammatical silences, as well.