On Different Sizes of Predicate Phrase Ellipsis in English: Towards a Principled Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines predicate phrase (PredP) ellipsis in English, identifying the exact constituent(s) affected by the ellipsis in the articulated structure of a clause projected by modal, perfect, progressive, and voice/copula auxiliary verbs in addition to the little v (Chomsky 1995). In particular, we note that the phrases projected by all these auxiliary verbs, except for modals that project the highest category TP, can undergo PredP ellipsis. However, there are two factors that come into play in influencing sizes of PredP ellipsis. One is dialectal variation,which distinguishes British English from American English in that only the former allows elision of PerfP via PredP ellipsis. The other is structural difference, which tells apart coordination from subordination in that PredP ellipsis applies to vP or the constituent bigger than that in the former structure, but it can apply to the smaller constituent VoiceP in the latter structure. We provide an explanation for how each of the two factors can be understood in the general theory of ellipsis.