A «Gap» in Spanish Gapping
doi: https://doi.org/10.31810/rsel.56.1.5
Abstract
Gapping (Mary sang on Monday and Elena on Tuesday) seems to obey a restriction according to which implicit correlations (sprouting) are not allowed. Sprouting processes (María ate, but they don’t know what) are possible when the sentence with deletion is found in contexts other than coordination, as well as in specific cases of ellipsis, such as sluicing and stripping. The contrast between deletion in coordination contexts and ellipsis in other contexts suggests that the two processes involve different derivations. Since sprouting is possible in clausal ellipsis constructions, it is plausible to assume that ellipsis in non-coordinated contexts (which also allow sprouting) is the product of a derivation with ellipsis (mere phonetic deletion). Gapping in coordination contexts, on the other hand, should involve a derivation different from that based on ellipsis, since sprouting is not licensed.
In this paper, we show that the prohibition on sprouting is not fulfilled if gapping involves a derivation through phonetic deletion in coordination contexts. On the other hand, we suggest that if the deletion involves ATB movement of the VP, the ban on sprouting is accounted for. In sum, we argue that there are two types of derivations that can produce clauses with ellipsis: ATB movement derivation and phonetic deletion derivation.
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