Journal: Journal Title: Languages
Issue: Current Issues in Ellipsis and Ellipsis Mismatch: Studies in Japanese and Beyond

Call for Papers:

We are very pleased to announce the launching of the Special Issue in Languages under the title “Current Issues in Ellipsis and Ellipsis Mismatch: Studies in Japanese and Beyond”.

So much progress has been made to pave the way toward a better understanding of the nature and mechanism of ellipsis phenomena in Japanese, both in terms of the coverage of data and theoretical advances. In fact, investigations of ellipsis in Japanese have continued to play an integral role in shaping, informing and sometimes even challenging general theories of ellipsis often developed solely on considerations drawn mainly from English and Indo-European languages (Huang 1984; Saito and Murasugi 1990; Takahashi 1994; Oku 1998; Saito 2007, among many others). More recent work has studied various forms of ellipsis such as sluicing and argument ellipsis based on novel Japanese ellipsis data and has drawn theoretically significant conclusions regarding central issues revolving around the proper formulation of identity conditions and operational mechanisms behind ellipsis constructions such as sluicing and argument ellipsis (Takita 2012; Funakoshi 2016; Sakamoto 2017, 2019, among others). At the same time, however, there remains so much work to be done in the field of Japanese ellipsis for current and future generations of ellipsis researchers despite the growing body of rather intensive inquiries into ellipsis within contemporary generative research. We therefore find it timely to showcase a sample of cutting-edge research on ellipsis primarily focusing on (but not limited to) Japanese.

Against this general background, we would like to publish contributions from researchers working on a wide variety of ellipsis constructions which develop latest ideas on current topical issues surrounding the general theme of “ellipsis and/or ellipsis mismatch”. We particularly welcome contributions on this topic that draw on data primarily from Japanese. This issue is therefore wide in its scope, welcoming papers addressing current topical issues on ellipsis and/or ellipsis mismatch, including, but not limited to, the following:

What kind of ellipsis mismatch is available and why (category/size mismatch in antecedent-ellipsis pairs)?
What is the nature of identity conditions on ellipsis (syntactic, semantic, discourse, information structure)?
What operational mechanisms are available for ellipsis constructions (copying, deletion, movement)?
What implications do analyses of various ellipsis phenomena have for linguistic interfaces (syntax-semantics, syntax-phonology, and so on)?
What kinds of cross-linguistic variation can be found in ellipsis?

Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 October 2024
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 15 November 2024
Full Manuscript Deadline: 15 May 2025

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) or to the Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Please visit the following website for further information on this special issue:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/special_issues/5UHW5L36UA

Yosuke Sato
Kensuke Takita
Yuta Sakamoto
Guest Editors

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories

Subject Language(s): Japanese (jpn)

Language Family(ies): Japanese Family