Ellipsis Phenomena within the Clause; A Phase-Based Approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Shabnam Majidi ¹
• Fatemeh Bahrami ²
• Mazdak Anoushe ³

¹ PhD Candidate in Linguistics, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor in Linguistics, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

³ Mazdak Anoushe Assistant Professor in Linguistics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/jlkd.2024.88620.1251

Abstract

Ellipsis phenomena or deletions, in traditional generative terms, involve a number of cases where otherwise expected syntactic material goes missing under some conditions. How to formulate a generalization that can explain all types of deletion has been a central question since the dawn of Principle and Parameters Theory. The present study endeavored to take a step towards this goal within the framework of phase-based minimalist syntax in order to provide a comprehensive explanation of various types of ellipsis in Persian clauses. To achieve this, at first, the main issues of ellipsis were outlined and the success of the different accounts available in the literature were evaluated. Then, the split-C system was introduced and the functional projections dominating the Tense Phrase were examined in order to identify the projection that forms the upper phase in Persian. The empirical evidence shows that, similar to German, the typical complementizers like “ke” (that) and “ta” (in order to) are generated in the head of Finite Phrase (FinP) in Persian and then raises to the head of the Force Phrase (ForceP), thus, the FinP should be considered the upper phase, which triggers some deletion processes in the clause structure. Following this proposal, it was tried to provide a detailed description of the types of deletion within the clause and attempted to analyze the deleted structures such as gapping, pseudogapping, Right Node Raising, VP-ellipsis, sluicing, tag-question, and sentence fragmentation based on the minimalist approach. Ultimately, in the final section of the research, it was argue that the different types of deletion within the clause apply to the lower phase (vP) or upper phase (FinP) and eliminate the heads and/or constituents from the syntactic derivation. This analysis, relying on the post-syntactic operations of deletion and morphological merger, explains why in complex predicates, the non-verbal element can be either retained or deleted.

Keywords

• Ellipsis
• Finite Phrase
• Split-C System
• Phase Theory
• Morphological Merger

Main Subjects

• Syntax

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