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Countersluicing
Author(s) -
Hiraiwa Ken,
Kobayashi Yoshiaki
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
syntax
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9612
pISSN - 1368-0005
DOI - 10.1111/synt.12190
Subject(s) - ellipsis (linguistics) , phrase , argument (complex analysis) , linguistics , phenomenon , verb phrase ellipsis , computer science , mathematics , natural language processing , philosophy , noun phrase , epistemology , medicine , noun
Sluicing deletes everything but a wh phrase. We document a novel phenomenon in Japanese, what we call countersluicing , in which everything but a wh phrase (and what follows it) survives deletion. Countersluicing lacks an overt wh phrase but nevertheless functions as a wh question. We propose that both countersluicing and sluicing have a cleft structure as their underlying structure. Countersluicing is derived from applying argument ellipsis to ForceP. This is exactly the opposite of what happens in sluicing in Japanese: argument ellipsis applies to a topicalized FinP. We provide several pieces of evidence for our analysis, involving multiple foci, connectivity effects, the clausemate condition, and island sensitivity.