Ellipsis in sequences of multiple wh-words

Vol.64,No.1(2016)

Hana Gruet-Skrabalova

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/135450

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Abstract
This article deals with elliptical sequences of multiple wh-words in Czech. It is argued that such sequences involve two different constructions, elliptical multiple questions and elliptical assertions. Wh-words in elliptical multiple questions share the properties of wh-words in non-elliptical questions; they have the same syntactic distribution and semantic interpretation, they do not show superiority effects, and their combinability depends on their reading. Moreover, elliptical questions can be reconstructed into syntactically complete questions. In contrast, elliptical assertions differ from elliptical questions in several aspects. They always contain the word ‘jak’ in initial position, they do not have question interpretation and cannot be reconstructed into full clauses. I propose that elliptical multiple questions result from TP-deletion after movement of the wh-words into CP domain (so-called multiple sluicing) and the TP-ellipsis is driven by the Focus feature. This explains that it can also apply to referential focused DPs. As for elliptical assertions, I claim that they are base-generated and involve semantic ellipsis, i.e. a null category, which gets its interpretation from a TP in the previous context.

Keywords:
ellipsis; wh-words; multiple questions; sluicing; Czech

Pages:
57–69
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