British English do and extraction out of vP

Abstract

This paper examines the peculiar aspects of the British English (BE) do, in comparison to those of regular VP ellipsis. In particular, the BE do allows A-extraction out of a verbal domain, but it does not allow A'-extraction out of it, though regular VP ellipsis does not have this kind of asymmetry, permitting both types of extraction. This paper argues that the BE do involves elision of vP, unlike regular VP ellipsis that involves elision of VP. The restriction on A'-movement out of the elided vP, it is shown, follows from the identity/parallelism condition on ellipsis and the chain uniformity condition.