LINGUIST List 18.932
Wed Mar 28 2007
Diss: Syntax: Juzwa: 'The Syntax of Ellipsis in English and Polish:...'
Editor for this issue: Hunter Lockwood
<hunterlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Urszula
Juzwa,
The Syntax of Ellipsis in English and Polish: A comparative view
******************************************************************************* Fund Drive FLASH: We still need $37,468 to end Fund Drive. If you have not donated, please visit http://linguistlist.org/donate.html*******************************************************************************
Message 1: The Syntax of Ellipsis in English and Polish: A comparative view
Date: 28-Mar-2007
From: Urszula Juzwa <ujuzwagmail.com>
Subject: The Syntax of Ellipsis in English and Polish: A comparative view
Institution: Adam Mickiewicz University
Program: Linguistics Program
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2007
Author: Urszula Juzwa
Dissertation Title: The Syntax of Ellipsis in English and Polish: A comparative view
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Polish (pol)
Dissertation Director:
Jacek WitkoĊ
Dissertation Abstract:
The present work has been built on an examination of an intriguingphenomenon in syntax: ellipsis. Based on English and Polish data, thepresent analysis is an attempt to classify elliptical sentences in bothlanguages as well as present their syntactic structure, characteristicfeatures and cross-linguistic differences in the application of ellipsis.
The point that I have been pursuing is that such typology can be carriedout from the perspective of the linguistic material which is targeted byellipsis rather than the mode of its application. I have endeavouredthroughout to show that certain traditional types of ellipsis such asComparative Ellipsis, Antecedent Contained Deletion or Argument ContainedEllipsis do not create a separate category of an elliptical phenomenon butthey rather fall under the scope of some other, more general types. Thus, Idistinguish nine basic types of ellipsis: NP Ellipsis (Coordinate andSubordinate), DP Ellipsis (Coordinate and Subordinate), VP Ellipsis(Coordinate and Subordinate (which includes traditionally called cases ofCE, ACD, ACE)), Sluicing (Coordinate and Subordinate), Stripping(Coordinate and Subordinate (also found in what is traditionally called CE,as well as in ACD constructions)), Gapping (Coordinate and Subordinate(traditionally as CE)), Pseudogapping (Coordinate and Subordinate(traditionally treated as Subdeletion)), Comparative Deletion andSubdeletion. I divide them in two main groups: Coordinate Ellipsis andSubordinate Ellipsis and discuss them in three separate chapters.
In every single case I hope to have provided a detailed analysis of thescope and syntax of particular types of ellipsis as well as the differencesin their application in English and Polish. I believe that the division ofellipsis into Coordinate Ellipsis and Subordinate Ellipsis facilitates itscategorisation and clearly shows the target of elision.
This study also aims at defining ellipsis. In chapter one I have shown thatcertain empty structures were not considered ellipsis phenomena in somegenerative literature and I try to prove why the conditions on them aresuperficial and inaccurate. I hope to have proven that Gapping can occur ina subordinate relation to its antecedent in English and Polish and thusdeserve the status of ellipsis.
Degree constructions which have proved to create particularly problematicenvironment for the typology of ellipsis are analysed thoroughly in chapterfour. Degree heads and degree predicates in English and Polish receive herean in-depth analysis.
Ellipsis is omission of the material which is otherwise needed lexically,semantically and syntactically. Such a phenomenon raises certain importantissues such as parallelism, identity, PF-deletion, LF-copying, scope,Quantifier Raising, infinite regress, ambiguity. I try to discuss theproblems which various accounts of ellipsis have faced so far, arguing forits parallel status in a sentence and a PF-deletion account.
The present analysis, carried out for syntactic ellipsis in English andPolish, hopes to provide an insight into a very interesting phenomenonfound in natural languages. It aims at discussing its internal structure,derivation and interpretation as well as providing a comparison betweenEnglish and Polish instances of ellipsis.
|