Subject-Auxiliary Inversion in comparatives and PF output constraints

Abstract

This paper establishes the novel generalization that Subject -Auxiliary Inversion in comparative clauses requires the co-presence of VP-ellipsis, and argues that this peculiar fact follows from a disjunctive formulation of an ECP that applies at PF. The analysis relies crucially on the presence of an intermediate trace of the A'-moved comparative operator at the edge of VP, which is subject to the ECP at PF, and which interacts with the head movement involved in SAI. This trace is unlicensed in structures with I-to-C movement, but VP-ellipsis repairs the violation, providing further evidence that ellipsis can repair otherwise deviant structures

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2010-12-22

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Jason Merchant
University of Chicago

Citations of this work

Fragments and ellipsis.Jason Merchant - 2004 - Linguistics and Philosophy 27 (6):661 - 738.
Three kinds of ellipsis: Syntactic, semantic, pragmatic?Jason Merchant - 2010 - In François Récanati, Isidora Stojanovic & Neftalí Villanueva (eds.), Context Dependence, Perspective and Relativity. Mouton de Gruyter.

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