Ellipsis occurs when certain portions of a sentence are not spoken - for example 'Mary has read more books than Bill has [read books]' and 'Jack called, but I don't know where [he called] from'. These constructions interest linguists because the meaning of the sentence cannot be traced directly to the words it contains. This volume brings together a team of leading syntacticians to propose new and original solutions to some key questions in the study of ellipsis: What characterises ellipsis? Under what conditions is it possible? What kinds of meanings are allowed to go unspoken? Drawing on a variety of authentic constructions, they examine ellipsis in the context of a range of syntactic phenomena such as binding, raising, anaphora, movement and scrambling. Making significant progress towards solving some central problems in syntactic theory, this volume will be of key interest to anyone working on theoretical syntax, semantics and psycholinguistics.

This book looks at some central problems and questions in the study of ellipsis, whereby certain portions of a sentence are unspoken.

About the Author
Kyle Johnson is Professor in the Linguistics Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.


Book Information
ISBN 9780521131049
Author Kyle Johnson
Format Paperback
Page Count 308
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm