Post-linearization ellipsis: null subjects and head copy realization

SAAB, ANDRÉS

Berlin

Workshop; Linearization Workshop; 2010

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

In this work, I propose that the so called ellipsis transformation is an operation which takes place all the way down from the syntax to the PF component of the grammar. Strictly speaking, what we call ellipsis is, in fact, a feature-adding transformation which applies under strict formal identity and under different locality conditions depending on the component of the grammar in which it applies. I call this transformation I-Assignment (I for Identity). The PF result of an I-assigned syntactic object is blocking the Lexical Insertion Rules to apply in the domain of a morphosyntactic word (MWd) (in Embick & Noyer (2001)’ terms). By the definition I propose it follows what I will call the Subword Deletion Corollary, which must be understood as the impossibility of deleting part of words. The focus of this paper is morphological I-Assignment, which affects only MWds under immediate locality or adjacency (cf. Embick & Noyer 2001).