2017/04/01 by Susi Wurmbrand
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
paper · doi:10.1162/ling_a_00245
crossref issued 2017/04/01 · crossref published 2017/04/01 · crossref published-print 2017/04/01 · openalex publication_date 2017/04/01 · crossref created 2017/05/12 · crossref deposited 2024/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This article shows that stripping, the elision of declarative TPs, is possible not only in coordinate structures, but also in embedded clauses—however, only when the complementizer is absent. This Embedded Stripping Generalization is not predicted by earlier accounts of stripping, but it falls out from a certain combination of independently available assumptions. Specifically, I propose a zero Spell-Out view of ellipsis in a dynamic (or contextual) phasehood approach, which, together with the lack of a CP layer in that-less embedded clauses, derives this generalization in languages like English. I then briefly consider stripping in other languages and suggest that the analysis also has the flexibility to accommodate crosslinguistic differences in the distribution of stripping.