Ur Shlonsly - "NOISE" - 10h
Ellipsis does not apply to a constituent in situ.
Andrew Nevins - "Agreement switch in verb-echo answers : Evidence for Distributed Ellipsis" - 11h30
This talk (based on joint work) explores the hypothesis that syntactic elements undergoing ellipsis can be targeted by both narrow syntactic and PF operations. We base this conclusion on experimental evidence from the interaction between single conjunct agreement and verb-echo answers in South Slavic — which we show to be derived via verb-stranding VP ellipsis. Adopting the view that ellipsis is a syntactic operation which deletes Q-variables (Saab, 2022), and that Vocabulary Insertion replaces Q-variables on lexical items (Halle, 1991), we demonstrate that constituents properly included in the ellipsis site can undergo Internal Merge in the narrow syntax, and can participate in PF processes from the derived position. The interaction between ellipsis, Internal Merge and Agree-Copy that account for the striking patterns of agreement switch in verb-echo answers follows naturally within this Distributed Ellipsis approach.