Low and not so low cases of ellipsis: a cross-linguistic study

• Grant number: 17/11658-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: October 20, 2017
• End date: March 19, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Ruth Elisabeth Vasconcellos Lopes
• Grantee: Ruth Elisabeth Vasconcellos Lopes
• Host Investigator: Jason R Merchant
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Chicago, United States

Abstract

Our aim in this project if to analyze cases of low ellipsis, such as VP-ellipsis, and not so low ones, as TP-ellipses in different languages. We will associate ellipsis with phase theory, assuming Boakovi's (2013) proposal for phases. To achieve our aim, we will examine the nature of the aspectual head in languages which license VP-ellipsis and those that do not, under the hypothesis that ellipses are non-pronounced phases or complements of phase heads in which an E-feature was merged (see Merchant, 2013). The analysis assumed makes parametric predictions as to the licensing or not of VP-ellipsis, something which has to be properly considered empirically. (AU)