The Interfaces: Deriving and Interpreting Omitted Structures is a collection of never-before-published papers that explore the nature of the interfaces of syntax with semantics, phonology, and discourse. The papers investigate the various ways in which elliptical structures are related to these interfaces. As such, they not only make a valuable contribution to generative linguistic research but, more generally, help to deepen our understanding of the relation between form and meaning in natural language.In the book’s introductory chapter, the editors address general issues related to current work on ellipsis and the syntax/semantics, syntax/phonology and syntax/discourse interfaces. The rest of the book is organized into three parts. The first examines PF-deletion accounts of elliptical structures; the second investigates these structures from the perspective of the syntax/semantic interface; and the third explores these from a perspective that concentrates on the relation between semantics and focus and discourse structure. Together the papers collected in this volume offer a convincing demonstration of the value of collaborative research on the ‘interfaces’. Table of contentsExploring the interfaces from the perspective of omitted structures Edited by Kerstin Schwabe and Susanne Winkler 1 I. Towards the exploration of PF-deletion accounts Ellipsis and syntactic representation Contributors: Christopher Kennedy 29 Subject-Auxiliary Inversion in comparatives and PF output constraints Contributors: Jason Merchant 55 Antecedent-Containment and ellipsis Contributors: Chris Wilder 79 Background matching in Right Node Raising constructions Contributors: Katharina Hartmann 121 II. From the computational system to the syntax semanticss interface Merge Copy Contributors: Caterina Donati 155 Phrase Structure Paradoxes, movement and ellipsis Contributors: Winfried Lechner 177 Unpronounced heads in relative clauses Contributors: Uli Sauerland 205 Variation at the syntax-semantics interface: Evidence from Gapping Contributors: Luis López and Susanne Winkler 227 III. The semantic component and its connection to focus and discourse structure Ellipsis and the structure of discourse Contributors: Daniel Hardt 251 Correlate restriction and definiteness effect in ellipsis Contributors: Maribel Romero 263 F-marking and specificity in Sluicing constructions Contributors: Kerstin Schwabe 301 The semantics of Japanese null pronouns and its cross-linguistic implications Contributors: Satoshi Tomioka 321 Omission impossible? Topic and focus in Focal Ellipsis Contributors: Petra Gretsch 341 References 367Name index 389Subject index 395