Full Description
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'.
Contents
1. Exploring the interfaces from the perspective of omitted structures (by Schwabe, Kerstin); 2. I. Towards the exploration of PF-deletion accounts; 3. Ellipsis and syntactic representation (by Kennedy, Christopher); 4. Subject-auxiliary inversion in comparatives and PF output constraints (by Merchant, Jason); 5. Antecedent-containment and ellipsis (by Wilder, Chris); 6. Background matching in right node raising constructions (by Hartmann, Katharina); 7. II. From the computational system to the syntax-semantics interface; 8. Merge copy (by Donati, Caterina); 9. Phrase structure paradoxes, movement and ellipsis (by Lechner, Winfried); 10. Unpronounced heads in relative clauses (by Sauerland, Uli); 11. Variation at the syntax-semantics interface: Evidence from gapping (by Lopez, Luis); 12. III. The semantic component and its connection to focus and discourse structure; 13. Ellipsis and the structure of discourse (by Hardt, Daniel); 14. Correlate restriction and definiteness effect in ellipsis (by Romero, Maribel); 15. F-marking and specificity in sluicing constructions (by Schwabe, Kerstin); 16. The semantics of Japanese null pronouns and its cross-linguistic implications (by Tomioka, Satoshi); 17. Omission impossible?: Topic and focus in Focal Ellipsis (by Gretsch, Petra); 18. References; 19. Name index; 20. Subject index
