Ways of Deriving Bare Fragments: Case-stranding and Postposition-stranding under Ellipsis

Abstract

This paper examines certain types of fragments that optionally allow case-drop or postposition stranding (P-stranding). While it is the standard assumption that case-marked fragments are derived by ellipsis (Morgan 1973, B.-S. Park 2005a, Ahn and Cho 2011, a.o.), there are ongoing debates on how caseless/bare fragments are derived. This paper argues that caseless fragments can be derived by stranding their case marker in the elliptical site, yielding a repair effect (Merchant 2001). Thus the term, case-drop, is understood as case-stranding. Extending the strand-under-ellipsis strategy to P-stranding, I argue that the postposition also is stranded in the elliptical site, which is not allowed otherwise. This is newly attested in Korean and thus has an interesting implication for typological perspectives.