Syntax 3						W 2017

Problem 2.  Ellipsis					Due M 1/23/2017

I.  VP Ellipsis

1.  You are no doubt familiar with a phenomenon called "VP Ellipsis",
which is illustrated in (1)-(4):

(1)   I never put a snake in my pocket before, but I might.

(2)   You can be sitting in the front row if you want to.

(3)   Did Harvey go to the store on his motorcycle yesterday?

      Yes, he did.

      Well, he might have.

      No, but he will tomorrow.

(4)   They think I'm afraid of them, but I'm not.

2.  One way (though not the only way) to account for this phenomenon
in a grammar is via a Transformational operation of deletion.  For
present purposes, we will adopt the assumption that there is such
a rule, and call it "VP Deletion".  Here are some questions about
VP Deletion.

(a)  What gets deleted?

     (Do you have really good evidence for that?)

(b)  What are the conditions on this deletion?

     (Be careful here: there are at least two fairly obvious conditions.
     If you force yourself to write an explicit transformational rule
     and test it, you will probably discover them.)

(c)  Is the VP Deletion transformation bounded?

(d)  Can it go backward?

(e)  Does it obey island constraints?

3.   A caution: VPE is not the only kind of ellipsis there is.
The following examples, for example, are *not* VPE:

(5)   Harvey keeps a snake in his pocket, and Bill a toad.

(6)   Harvey wants to try to begin to write a novel, and Bill a play.

This phenomenon, which is called "Gapping", is found only in
coordinate structures.  As you can see from exx (1-3), VPE is not
so restricted.

II.  Deep and Surface Anaphora

Read Hankamer & Sag, "Deep and Surface Anaphora".  That is posted
on the course web site.

In reading it, bear in mind that it was written in the 70's (before
you were born).  Some things have changed.  But the central concerns
have remained relevant.

A couple of notions that have changed a bit but have always remained
interesting:

	The concept of (c-)command:

	A node A c-commands a node B iff
		(a)	A does not dominate B
	and	(b)	A's mother dominates B

For exercise, Draw some trees and see what c-commands what.  Does the subject
of a sentence (in surface structure) c-command the VP?  Does a V c-command
its direct object?  In "the puppy with a waggly tail", does the D 'the'
c-command the DP "a waggly tail"?  Don't include this in your writeup.

Another concept from that time is the Backward Anaphora Constraint (BAC).
Essentially, it said that an anaphor could not both precede and command
its antecedent.  We might be able to improve on that, but that is up to
you.  (How does this relate to Condition C of the Binding Theory?)

Your assignment is first to read the Hankamer & Sag paper, taking careful
note of what you understand and what you don't understand (especially the
latter).  Be ready to ask questions and have discussions during the
coming week.

Make an inventory of the anaphoric processes ("phenomena" might be a better
word) discussed in the paper.  For three of those processes, find out the
answer to the following questions:

	1.  Is it bounded?
	2.  Can it go backward?
	3.  Does it obey island constraints?

Write this up, as a group, and be ready to discuss findings (and questions)
on Monday.

NOTE: Because of the truncated week, I limited this question to three processes.
The original version said all of them, so you get a break.  But tell me why you
chose those three.