Features of French clausal ellipsis
Authier, Marc (The Pennsylvania State University)

Date:	2025
Abstract:	Evidence is provided that there is a use of the French clitic le (coined special le) that co-occurs with clausal ellipsis. I argue against extending Elbourne's (2001) analysis of E-type pronouns as definite determiners followed by ellipsis to special le and suggest instead that it is best analyzed as the optional phonological realization of an E-feature. I further establish the existence of two distinct types of clausal ellipsis: type 1, which may, but need not, co-occur with wh-extraction out of the ellipsis site and type 2, which must involve wh-extraction of an ellipsis remnant to be licensed. I propose an account of type 1 (a. k. a. modal) ellipsis that correctly predicts that it is only licensed by those modal verbs that take phasal complements. I then turn to type 2 ellipsis and argue that it involves the pairing of an E-feature and an EPP feature with the higher C-projection of a CP-recursive structure selected by verbs embedding a speech act such as bridge verbs. Finally, I show that type 2 ellipsis is licensed in ACD relatives but not in standard relatives. I provide a tentative explanation for this based on Koster-Moeller & Martin Hackl's (2008) derivational theory of ACD relatives.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Antecedent contained deletion ; Clausal ellipsis ; CP-recursion ; E-feature ; French
Published in:	Isogloss, Vol. 11 Núm. 5 (2025) , p. 1-19 (Articles) , ISSN 2385-4138

Adreça original: https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/v11-n5-authier
DOI: 10.5565/rev/isogloss.483

19 p, 464.7 KB

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