Language Research

Primary and Secondary Predicate Ellipsis in Complement and Adjunct Small Clauses: A minimalist Approach (Phase Theory)

Shabnam Majidi; Fatemeh Bahrami; Mazdak Anoushe

Volume 13, Issue 2 , May 2023, , Pages 105-134

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2023.352971.666819

Abstract

The phenomenon of the head- and constituent ellipsis is one of the most discussed issues that grammarians have given a different name to each of its types. The present paper deals with ... Read More The phenomenon of the head- and constituent ellipsis is one of the most discussed issues that grammarians have given a different name to each of its types. The present paper deals with a specific type of ellipsis within the clause, which is referred to, in the tradition of generative grammar, as the Right Node Raising, and it is distinct from the deletion of the second coordinate clause, namely gapping. In the aforementioned ellipsis, the verb alone, or together with its dependents, is removed from the first coordinate clause. While examining such structures, the present article analyzes the ellipsis from the coordinate clauses which contain a complement or adjunct small clause, and therefore, due to the simultaneous deletion of the primary predicate (from the main clause) and the secondary predicate (from the subordinate clause), they represent more syntactic complexity of its own. In the analysis, which is based on the assumption of two processes, namely the “verb movement out of the vP” and the “object shift”, the discussed structures are divided into two types: coordinates with a common subject and ones with a non-common subject; and thus, a different explanation is provided for each kind. In coordinates that have a common subject and host a small clause in their argument structure, in fact, two vPs, and not two clauses, are coordinated, and the process known as Across-the-Board movement, which is applied to the verb and the subject of the clause, leaves some gaps in the first coordinate clause in place. In contrary, the ellipsis phenomenon is applied to coordinates with non-common subjects. Since this phenomenon occurs at PF level, it is expected that its occurrence is related to the phase domain. In this research, based on the Phase Theory, as well as the empirical evidence of the Persian, we argue that in the latter structures, ellipsis occurs at the higher phase stage, and the elements that have already reached the edge of the phase are pronounced at the phonetic level, following the Phase Impenetrability Condition.

Secondary Predicates in Persian, A Minimalist Approach

Mazdak Anushe

Volume 9, Issue 2 , January 2019, , Pages 1-21

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2018.69526

Abstract

Secondary predicates are among the syntactic structures that have been neglected by the traditional Persian grammarians, but in the course of the last four decades of studies in generative ... Read More

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Keywords = small clause

Primary and Secondary Predicate Ellipsis in Complement and Adjunct Small Clauses: A minimalist Approach (Phase Theory)

Abstract

Secondary Predicates in Persian, A Minimalist Approach

Abstract