| Description |
This talk argues that recoverability and identity are dissociable in ellipsis. It does so by surveying circumstances where one ellipsis is bad, yet two are good. For example, in answer to a question like Where did John go shopping? it is not possible to reply elliptically: *He did in Paris. It is possible, however, to reply with double ellipsis: He didn't in Paris, but he did in London. The meaning of these ellipses must be recovered from the preceding question; but that question was not able to license a single ellipsis. Instead, the two ellipses are mutually licensing, establishing identity with each other. In addition to elliptical answers, the talk will survey double ellipsis with respect to voice and other argument structure mismatches, elliptical except-phrases, and Dahl's puzzle.
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