Lecture by Prof. Idan Landau

Detecting, Constraining and Interpreting Silent Structure: Insights from Argument Ellipsis in Hebrew

(Delivered at MIT)

Abstract:

In this talk I examine classical and current issues in the theory of ellipsis through the prism of Argument Ellipsis (AE) in Hebrew, a productive process that offers a rich empirical testing ground. I start with standard diagnostics for surface anaphora, distinguishing AE from pro-drop and from Null Complement Anaphora, and leading to the strongest type of argument for AE, based on subextraction. Then I turn to the question of identity in ellipsis – whether it is syntactic or semantic, what mismatches are tolerated between the antecedent and the elliptical constituent, and whether identity applies to the entire ellipsis domain or just to a subdomain within it. Evidence bearing on this question comes from force mismatch under CP ellipsis, confirming and expanding on similar results obtained in studies of sluicing. Next, I discuss a curious semantic condition on AE – only arguments denoting individuals (type <e>) can be elided. The restriction holds across a number of unrelated languages, and is helpful in pinning down the size of the elided category (DP or VP). I will also discuss very recent results from a study of resumption inside ellipsis sites and how they overcome the severe limitations of the subextraction diagnostic (insofar as resumption is not derived by movement). Finally, I go over recent proposals as to what is AE, and sketch an approach based on the “Big DP” hypothesis.

Congratulations!