Citko and Gračanin-Yuksek (2020): Conjunction saves multiple sluicing: How *(and) why?

English cannot sluice two wh-phrases (who what), but it can sluice them coordinated (who or what). Citko and Gračanin-Yuksek argue that a coordinated sluice is neither a multiple sluice nor an elided coordinated wh-question. It coordinates two clauses, each with one fronted wh-phrase and its own elided TP, and the second TP holds an E-type pronoun anaphoric to the first wh-phrase's trace, which gives the sluice its it reading (what John sang and where he sang it). A coordinated wh-question shares everything but its wh-phrases, so each wh-phrase stands in one conjunct and the question has only the at-all reading. Its structure cannot underlie a sluice: the shared complementizer would elide both TPs, and the second ellipsis would silence nothing new, which economy bans.

Main statements

• csFromCWH_vacuous: a coordinated sluice cannot have the structure of a coordinated wh-question, whose shared [E] complementizer would elide its second TP vacuously.
• cs_noVacuousEllipsis, cs_itReading: in the biclausal sluice each ellipsis silences a string of its own, and the E-type pronoun gives the it reading.

Implementation notes

• A structure is a planar syntactic object spelled out by Linearization/Spellout.lean: a token at two positions is shared and pronounced at its last occurrence, a fronted wh-phrase leaves a deleted copy, and the coordinator is left out, so a string is its conjuncts' words.
• The E-type pronoun of the second conjunct is a deleted copy of the first wh-phrase without an antecedent in its conjunct, Merchant's pronominal correlate of the wh-trace.

TODO

• The paper excludes the sluice structure as a source for coordinated wh-questions by scope parallelism without the pronoun, and with it by the overt E-type pronoun's need for an unelided antecedent. Neither condition is stated here.
• Coordination of arguments, obligatorily transitive verbs and subject wh-phrases follows from the pronoun saturating the verb in the second conjunct; the selection check of SyntacticObject/Selection.lean is undefined at the adjunction and specifier nodes involved.
• The independence of the two ellipses, which needs an overt pronoun when the second TP survives, and the absence of the clause-mate condition and of the category restriction of multiple sluicing.

References

• B. Citko and M. Gračanin-Yuksek, Conjunction saves multiple sluicing: How *(and) why? (2020)
• J. Merchant, E-type traces under sluicing (1999)
• J. Merchant, The Syntax of Silence (2001)
• D. Fox, Economy and Semantic Interpretation (2000)

The lexicon

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok (id : ℕ) (cat : Minimalist.Cat) (sel : Minimalist.SelStack := []) (phon : String := "") (wh ellipsis : Bool := false) : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

tok builds a token from a category, its selection, its form, and the wh and [E] features.

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok id cat sel phon wh ellipsis = { item := Minimalist.LexicalItem.of cat sel phon wh ellipsis, id := id }

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.what : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.what = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 1 Minimalist.Cat.D [] "what" true

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.where : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.where = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 2 Minimalist.Cat.P [] "where" true

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.john : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.john = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 3 Minimalist.Cat.D [] "John"

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.T : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.T = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 4 Minimalist.Cat.T [Minimalist.Cat.V]

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.sang : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.sang = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 5 Minimalist.Cat.V [Minimalist.Cat.D] "sang"

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.c : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

The null complementizer, the one bearing [E], and a second one bearing [E].

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.c = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 6 Minimalist.Cat.C [Minimalist.Cat.T]

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cE : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cE = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 7 Minimalist.Cat.C [Minimalist.Cat.T] "" false true

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cE' : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cE' = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 8 Minimalist.Cat.C [Minimalist.Cat.T] "" false true

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.john' : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

The tokens of a second, separately built clause.

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.john' = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 9 Minimalist.Cat.D [] "John"

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.T' : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.T' = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 10 Minimalist.Cat.T [Minimalist.Cat.V]

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.sang' : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.sang' = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tok 11 Minimalist.Cat.V [Minimalist.Cat.D] "sang"

The structures

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.nonBulk (c : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token) : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject

nonBulk c is the structure of the coordinated wh-question (13b): the two CPs share their complementizer c, subject, T and verb, and each holds one wh-phrase, what as the verb's object in the first and where adjoined to the verb phrase in the second.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

@[reducible, inline]

abbrev CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cwh : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject

The coordinated wh-question (13b).

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cwh = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.nonBulk CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.c

@[reducible, inline]

abbrev CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.csFromCWH : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject

A coordinated sluice with the structure of the coordinated wh-question, its shared complementizer bearing [E] ((14b), (69b)).

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.csFromCWH = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.nonBulk CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cE

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cs : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject

The coordinated sluice (70b) coordinates two clauses, each with its own [E] complementizer and TP; the second TP holds the E-type pronoun, a deleted copy of what.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

Readings

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.ItReading (t : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject) : Prop

A coordination has the it reading when its second conjunct holds a deleted copy, without an antecedent there, of a token pronounced in the first, which it reads as an E-type pronoun ((41), (54)).

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.ItReading t = ∃ x ∈ Minimalist.orphanTraces t, { toList := [1] } ≤ x.1 ∧ ∃ p ∈ Minimalist.occurrences t x.2, { toList := [0] } ≤ p

@[instance_reducible]

instance CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.instDecidablePredPlanarSyntacticObjectItReading : DecidablePred ItReading

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.instDecidablePredPlanarSyntacticObjectItReading x✝ = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.instDecidablePredPlanarSyntacticObjectItReading._aux_1 x✝

Vacuous ellipsis

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tokens (t : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject) : Finset Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

The tokens of t, each once.

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.tokens t = (List.map (fun (x : Core.Order.TreePath × Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token) => x.2) (Minimalist.tokenList ↑t)).toFinset

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.silencedBy (t : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject) (K : Core.Order.TreePath) : Finset Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

The pronounceable tokens the application of ellipsis at the domain K silences.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.IsVacuous (t : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject) (K : Core.Order.TreePath) : Prop

The application at K is vacuous when the earlier applications already silenced every token it silences.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

@[instance_reducible]

instance CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.instDecidableIsVacuous (t : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject) (K : Core.Order.TreePath) : Decidable (IsVacuous t K)

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.NoVacuousEllipsis (t : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject) : Prop

Economy bans vacuous ellipsis, since an operation applies only when it affects pronunciation or interpretation, as Fox's Scope Economy bans vacuous scope shifting, and ellipsis affects only pronunciation.

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.NoVacuousEllipsis t = ∀ K ∈ Minimalist.elidedDomains t, ¬CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.IsVacuous t K

@[instance_reducible]

instance CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.instDecidableNoVacuousEllipsis (t : Minimalist.PlanarSyntacticObject) : Decidable (NoVacuousEllipsis t)

Equations

• CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.instDecidableNoVacuousEllipsis t = CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.instDecidableNoVacuousEllipsis._aux_1 t

Coordinated wh-questions and coordinated sluices

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cwh_pf : Minimalist.pfPhon cwh = ["what", "where", "John", "sang"]

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cs_pf : Minimalist.pfPhon cs = ["what", "where"]

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.csFromCWH_pf : Minimalist.pfPhon csFromCWH = Minimalist.pfPhon cs

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cwh_atAll : Minimalist.orphanTraces cwh = []

Each wh-phrase of the coordinated wh-question is interpreted only in its own conjunct, so the second conjunct's verb is intransitive: the at-all reading (12).

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.csFromCWH_not_itReading : ¬ItReading csFromCWH

Built on the wh-question, a sluice would have the at-all reading coordinated sluices lack (19).

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.csFromCWH_vacuous : ¬NoVacuousEllipsis csFromCWH

The shared [E] complementizer elides both TPs, and the second deletion silences nothing the first did not (69b).

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cs_noVacuousEllipsis : NoVacuousEllipsis cs

In the biclausal sluice each TP dominates a string of its own, so neither ellipsis is vacuous (70b).

theorem CitkoGracaninYuksek2020.cs_itReading : ItReading cs

The E-type pronoun gives the coordinated sluice the it reading (56).