The Problem of Fragment Answers

Authors

  • Ana Lúcia Santos

Keywords:

fragments, ellipsis, acquisition

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the status of fragment answers to yes-no questions, based on facts from European Portuguese. I argue, along the lines of argumentation in Merchant (2004), that there is reason to believe that at least some of these fragments are derived through deletion. However, I show that data from EP does not support Merchant’s analysis of fragments as constituents moved to the left periphery before deletion. This leaves us with the problem of non-constituent deletion, which I argue is not a problem for a phonological deletion theory of ellipsis.

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Published

2010-01-12

How to Cite

Santos, A. L. (2010). The Problem of Fragment Answers. IBERIA: An International Journal of Theoretical Linguistics, 1(1). Retrieved from https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/iberia/article/view/93

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Section

Articles