Sluicing: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives

Edited by Jason Merchant and Andrew Simpson

Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics

Cross-linguistic coverage of a single linguistic phenomena
Accessible to readers with no specialist background knowledge of the languages discussed
Highlights the consequences for our understanding of the architecture of grammar

Sluicing: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives

Edited by Jason Merchant and Andrew Simpson

Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics

Description

This book considers the phenomenon of sluicing. Sluicing is the term applied to sentences in which the ellipsis of a sequence of words following an embedded wh question word appears to occur, and hearers must somehow recover the content of missing material (as in Someone saw her, but I don't know who.). Elliptical constructions of this type are now known to occur widely in the world's languages in some form or another, and create interesting problems for linguistic analysis, involving complex interactions between syntax, semantics and morphology, as well as prosody. The present volume brings together new research by leading experts who analyse sluicing constructions in English, Dutch, Frisian, Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, Turkish, Malagasy, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Bengali. The book expands our current understanding of the ways in which languages allow for ellipsis of the sluicing type to occur, and shows how sluicing constructions reveal important information about the general architecture of grammar. In addition to the nine chapters dedicated to specific languages, the volume features an introductory chapter and Haj Ross's original (1969) landmark paper on sluicing.

Sluicing: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives

Edited by Jason Merchant and Andrew Simpson

Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics

1. Introduction, Jason Merchant and Andrew Simpson
2. Guess Who?, John R. Ross
3. How do You Sluice When There is More Than One CP?, Jeroen van Craenenbroeck
4. Two Cases of Violation Repair Under Sluicing, Sandra Stjepanovic
5. How Many Kinds of Sluicing and Why? Single and Multiple Sluicing in Romanian, English, and Japanese, Frederick Hoyt and Alexandra Teodorescu
6. Case Morphology and Island Repair, Masanori Nakamura
7. Island Insensitivity in Japanese and Some Implications, Teruhiko Fukaya
8. Sluicing Without wh-movement in Malagasy, Ileana Paul and Eric Potsdam
9. Sluicing in Indo-Aryan: An investigation of Bangla and Hindi, Tanmoy Bhattacharya and Andrew Simpson
10. Sluicing in Mandarin Chinese: An instance of pseudo-sluicing, Perng Wang Adams and Satoshi Tomioka
11. Sluicing in Turkish, Atakan Ince

Sluicing: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives

Edited by Jason Merchant and Andrew Simpson

Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics

Author Information

Jason Merchant is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. He has written extensively on ellipsis, including on sluicing, swiping, fragment answers, verb phrase ellipsis, antecedent-contained ellipsis, comparative ellipsis, and nominal ellipsis. His other interests are in case, split ergativity, locality, islands, agreement, and topics in the syntax-semantics interface. His primary language areas are in Germanic, Greek, and Romance. He studied at Yale, Tubingen, Utrecht, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he received his Ph.D. in 1999.

Andrew Simpson is Professor of Linguistics and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California. His research is focused on the comparative syntax of East, Southeast and South Asian languages, in particular Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Bangla and Hindi. He is the author of Wh-Movement and the Theory of Feature Checking (John Benjamins), the editor of Language and National Identity in Asia and Language and National Identity in Africa (Oxford University Press), and joint general editor of the Journal of East Asian Linguistics. He has published articles in Linguistic Inquiry, Language, Lingua, the Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Studies in Language, Language and Linguistics, and the Journal of the South East Asian Linguistics Society.

Contributors:

Jason Merchant, Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago
Andrew Simpson, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California
Perng Wang Adams,
Tasnmoy Bhattacharya, Department of Linguistics, University of Delhi
Jeroen van Craenenbroeck, Center for Research in Syntax, Semantics, and Phonology, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel
Teruhiko Fukaya, Gunma Prefectural Women's University in Japan
Frederick Hoyt,
Atakan Ince, MultiLingual Solutions, Maryland
Masanori Nakamura, Senshu University
Ileana Paul, University of Western Ontario
Eric Potsdam, Department of Linguistics, University of Florida
John R Ross, Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication, University of North texas
Sandra Stjepanovic, West Virginia University
Alexandra Teodorescu, Visiting Scholar, New York University
Satoshi Tomioka, Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Delaware