LINGUIST List 9.794

Wed May 27 1998

Qs: Ellipsis, Plurals

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Directory

  1. rblight, Subject Positions and Ellipsis
  2. Rachel Selbach, 3rd person plural pronoun=general plural?

Message 1: Subject Positions and Ellipsis

 Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 02:14:36 -0600
From: rblight <rblightmail.utexas.edu>
Subject: Subject Positions and Ellipsis

I am doing some work on word order and morphological case in
e(lliptical)-clauses in the Germanic Languages, specifically cases of
stripping in which the heads and all arguments except the subject are
missing (e.g., the 'me too' type). If you have the time, I was hoping you
could give me translations (and judgments) of the following sentences. The
specific languages of interest are Dutch, Icelandic, Yiddish, Norwegian,
Danish, and Swedish (assuming, of course, that elliptical constructions of
this type are permissible). Non-Germanic languages are also welcomed. I
would appreciate any help you might be able to provide.



(1) John will leave the party early. Me-ACC too.


(2) John will leave the party early. Not me-ACC.

(3) * John will leave the party early. Me-ACC not.


(4) John will leave the party early. Probably me-ACC too.

(5) * John will leave the party early. Me-ACC probably too.


(6) Who will finish their homework by tomorrow? Probably not me-ACC.

(7) * Who will finish their homework by tomorrow? Probably me-ACC not.

(8) * Who will finish their homework by tomorrow? Me-ACC probably not.


(9) * John will leave the party early. I-NOM too.


(10) * John will leave the party early. Not I-NOM.

(11) * John will leave the party early. I-NOM not.


(12) * John will leave the party early. Probably I-NOM too.

(13) * John will leave the party early. I-NOM probably too.


(14) * Who will finish their homework by tomorrow? Probably not I-NOM.

(15) * Who will finish their homework by tomorrow? Probably I-NOM not.

(16) * Who will finish their homework by tomorrow? I-NOM probably not.

- Ralph C. Blight
Department of Linguistics,
The University of Texas at Austin
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~gizzmo/index.html
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Message 2: 3rd person plural pronoun=general plural?

 Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 16:41:05 -0400
From: Rachel Selbach <ricardacitenet.net>
Subject: 3rd person plural pronoun=general plural?

I am currently searching for languages where the nominal plural mark is, or
at least can be, the 3ppl pronoun.
I know only that this is a feature typical of many Austronesian languages,
but apparently one found in many other language families.
So, I am sending out this call to reach people who are potentially working
with such languages world-wide; I'll send a summary if I manage to collect
this mini-database!

Thankyou for your help,
Rachel.
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