Topics in Ellipsis - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521815088 ISBN 13: 9780521815086

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Book Description

Ellipsis occurs when certain portions of a sentence are unspoken - for example 'Jack called, but I don't know where [he called] from'. This volume proposes new and original solutions to some key questions in the study of ellipsis, making progress towards solving some central problems in syntactic and semantic theory.

About the Author

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521815088
• ISBN 13: 9780521815086
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308
• Editor: Johnson Kyle