Stripping vs VP-Ellipsis in Catalan
Résumé
In the tradition of Generative Grammar, several authors have explained the impossibility of vp-Ellipsis for Romance Languages following the hypothesis that vp-Ellipsis in these languages is not licensed by the head of infl as it is in English. It has been pointed out that in French, for instance, vp-Ellipsis is expressed by Stripping. The idea that Romance languages show tp-Ellipsis or tp-Deletion has emerged recently. In this paper we will demonstrate that concerning Catalan, three related constructions, namely Stripping, negative-contrasting constructions and tp-Ellipsis are independent and clearly specified. This evidence will come from the analysis of the so-called information packaging. We will argue that there are two different interpretative processes. On the one hand, Stripping and negative-contrasting constructions are under the control of focus by means of parallel foci in the former, and contrastive foci in the latter. On the other hand, tp-Ellipsis contructions are not constrained by the information packaging, although this notion might help to disambiguate the target in certain cases. Finally we propose a unified analysis of the so-called polarity particles as proforms, that is expressions whose function is to select the appropriate antecedent in the cases we are concerned here.
Domaines
Autre [cs.OH]
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