TP Ellipsis = VP Ellipsis + Reduction of TP Domain

Abstract

In the traditional analysis of ellipsis, TP and VP ellipsis are considered to be distinct operations. However, departing from this conventional wisdom, this article posits that TP ellipsis emerges from an additional phonological reduction occurring within a TP domain subsequent to VP ellipsis. This study is motivated by the observations made in Rudin (2019) and Kroll (2019), which highlight instances in specific structural contexts, where elements such as tense/modals and sentential polarity can occur within the TP domain undergoing phonological reduction, despite differing from their counterparts in the antecedent clause. The study acknowledges that the reduction of a TP domain is variably permissible, sometimes optional or prohibited, and in other cases, mandatory. By also examining Merchant’s (2008) MaxElide as a subset of reduction operations, this article investigates the factors that influence the conditioning of these operations.