2020/02/19 by Idan Landau · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · #DNA and Biological Computing #Natural Language Processing Techniques #semigroups and automata theory
paper · doi:10.1162/ling_a_00347
openalex publication_date 2020/02/19 · crossref created 2020/02/19 · crossref issued 2020/03/01 · crossref published 2020/03/01 · crossref published-print 2020/03/01 · crossref deposited 2024/07/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Ellipsis of a constituent whose head has moved out of it (“headless ellipsis”) is possible in some cases but not in others. Headless ellipsis is licensed only if the stranded head has not crossed a Spell-Out domain. The reason is that the silencing instruction responsible for ellipsis must be PF-visible on the head of the elided constituent, and PF-visibility is cut off at Spell-Out domain boundaries. A parallel effect is observed with remnants of head movement that are frozen for movement (“headless movement”). The two effects can possibly be united if ellipsis and copy deletion recruit the same silencing instruction at PF, hosted on the head of the deleted constituent. A third, mirror-image effect is observed with reprise fragments, which must be visibly headed. This time head movement removes the PF instruction that spares these fragments from ellipsis. Overall, these phenomena establish the significance of headedness for the syntax-PF interface.