DP-ELLIPSIS
(Syntax) Longer texts reveal that DPE is quite common in Formosan languages, especially in the actor-voice (AV) construction. For instance, the Nominative DPs of an AV construction can be deleted in our target languages, as shown in (1) and (2).

1. Amis (G.-C. Huang 2015)
   ma-hrek
   AV-finish

   e
   --

   a
   LK

   mi-ngota
   AV-muddy

   toya
   that

   nanom
   water

   ...
   

   '(the father) muddied the spring water ...'
2. Atayal (Adong 2016)
   tehuk
   arrive

   gbyan
   night

   lga,
   CS.TOP

   s<m>xu
   <AV>pound

   ru
   and

   m-ahuq
   wash

   lukus
   AV-clothes

   lozi
   also

   e.
   

   'In the night, (my mother) even has to cook and to wash clothes.'

3. Amis (G.-C. Huang 2015)
   ya
   that

   sato
   some

   a
   LK

   mi-laop-ay
   AV-chase-CS

   a
   LK

   kapah
   youth

   no
   GEN

   e
    

   Piwma
   Paiwan

   i
   PREP

   tirato
   here

   a
   LK

   ma-sa'opo
   AV-gather

   a
   LK

   mi-kilim
   AV-search

   'Those hunted men, Paiwan youths, assemble here and search for (this two brothers)'
4. Atayal (Huang and Wu 2016)
   yaqu
   INTJ

   m-tntun
   AV-put

   ru
   and

   m-l'ax
   AV-dyspnea

   p<in>rayas
   <IMPER.PV>cross

   ga,
   TOP

   nyux
   PROSS

   e
    

   h<m>twiy
   <AV>stop

   mha
   AV.say

   si
   always

   bzinah
   AV-return

   e
    

   ru
   and

   laxi
   NEG

   usa'
   AV-go

   q<m>alup
   <AV>hunt

   ru
   and

   q<m>buying.
   <AV>seize

   '"concentration" and "crossing" are two bird divinations which stop (hunters) and give (hunters) a hint to turn back and to not go hunting.'

DURATIVE ASPECT
(Grammar) A situation or action that has persisted over a period of time and still continues. This is called durative action (e.g. Kornfilt 1995). The suffixes -akal, -agel and -adur indicate this aspect (the first one might better be defined as durative stative and others durative progressive).

1. bakakaldɪ
   'she looked (for a while, she was frozen while looking)'
2. yapagelmiştir
   'she have gone on doing (something)'
3. okuyadur
   'go on reading'

DYNAMIC PREDICATE LOGIC
(Semantics) In this approach to dynamic semantics, dynamic meanings are types of actions, things that are individuated by the changes they effect. This is the approach associated with "dynamic predicate logic" (Groenendijk and Stokhof 1991). According to this dynamic semantic tradition, a meaning is a specification of how a receiver's information state would be modified. It could for instance be a function that maps an old information state to one which has been updated with the information that the meaning embodies. Alternatively, it could be a relation that expresses the kind of information change that the meaning brings about. | Rick Nouwen, Adrian Brasoveanu, Jan van Eijck, and Albert Visser, 2016

DYNAMIC SEMANTICS
(Semantics) A perspective on natural language semantics that emphasizes the growth of information in time. It is an approach to meaning representation where pieces of text or discourse are viewed as instructions to update an existing context with new information, the result of which is an updated context.
 In a slogan: Meaning is context change potential.
 DS focuses on the discourse actions of sender and receiver. DS as an abstract framework is compatible with many philosophical ways of viewing meaning and interpretation. DS aims to model meaning and interpretation. | Rick Nouwen, Adrian Brasoveanu, Jan van Eijck, and Albert Visser, 2016
See Also DISCOURSE REPRESENTATION THEORY, UPDATE SEMANTICS.

DYSFLUENCY
(Speech Production) Dysfluent speech is the disruption of the forward flow and timing of speech by repetition of sounds, syllables or words, sound prolongation and/or blocking on sounds, silent or audible (Bloodstein and Bernstein Ratner 2008). These differ from breaks in fluency typically experienced, such as hesitations, pauses to process ideation or production, as they may involve significant tension and struggle.
 Disruptions may be accompanied by secondary behaviors (facial grimaces, head/body movements), physical tension, negative reactions, avoidance of sounds, words or situations or decreased overall communication (Coleman 2013). Disorders of fluency comprise developmental stammering in children, young adults and adults; acquired/late onset stammering; atypical fluency disorders; and cluttering. | Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, 2021

E-GIVEN
(Syntax) 

e(lliptical)-GIVENness
An expression E counts as e-GIVEN iff E has a salient antecedent A and, modulo ∃-type shifting,

1. A entails F-clo (E), and
2. E entails F-clo (A)

EARLY-PEAK ACCENT
(Prosody) F0 peak preceding stressed syllable. High-pitched unstressed syllables are temporarily interpreted as stressed—a process directly affecting lexical activation. | Katharina Zahner, Sophie Kutscheid, and Bettina Braun, 2019

EDGE EFFECT
(Grammar) A phenomenon, such as a sandhi rule or cliticization, that happens at the edges of words, phrases, or other linguistic units. | The Free Dictionary, 2017

EJECTIVE CONSONANT
(Phonetics) A consonant, usually voiceless, that is pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced, and tenuis consonants. Some languages have glottalized sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives, which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalic consonants, which includes ejectives.
 In producing an ejective, the stylohyoid muscle and digastric muscle contract, causing the hyoid bone and the connected glottis to raise, and the forward articulation (at the velum in the case of [kʼ]) is held, raising air pressure greatly in the mouth so when the oral articulators separate, there is a dramatic burst of air (Ladefoged 2005). The Adam's apple may be seen moving when the sound is pronounced. In the languages in which they are more obvious, ejectives are often described as sounding like "spat" consonants, but ejectives are often quite weak. In some contexts and in some languages, they are easy to mistake for tenuis or even voiced stops (Fallon 2002).
 In strict, technical terms, ejectives are glottalic egressive consonants. Ejective fricatives are rare.
 Ejectives occur in about 20% of the world's languages (Ladefoged 2005). Ejectives that phonemically contrast with pulmonic consonants occur in about 15% of languages around the world. | Wikipedia, 2023

ELECTROGLOTTOGRAPH
(Phonetics) Or, laryngograph. A device which measures the change in conductance between two electrodes placed on either side of the thyroid cartilage. The output waveform is thought to be proportional to glottal contact area (Rothenberg 1992); thus, with positive polarity indicating increasing conductance (reduced impedance), the waveform is at its maximum during the closed phase of a phonatory cycle and at its minimum during the open phase. Specialized equipment is required in order to obtain adequate EGG waveforms. | Michal Borsky, Daryush D. Mehta, Jarrad H. Van Stan, and Jon Gudnason, 2017

ELEMENTARY TREE
(Syntax) We can represent the individual vocabulary items of a language as small pieces of syntactic structure, or elementary trees. The idea is to generate phrases and sentences by composing (and possibly otherwise manipulating) these elementary trees in mathematically well-defined ways.
 In this view, vocabulary items are comparable to the atoms of physical matter. Atoms do not combine into molecules just because they happen to be next to each other; rather, their combinatorial possibilities are governed by their internal structure (for instance, the number of electrons on an atom's outermost shell and the relative number of protons and electrons).

1. The elementary tree for ate
    
      VP
      ╱╲
    ╱   ╲
    NP     V'
         ╱╲
        ╱   ╲
       V      NP
        |
       ate

2. The X' schema
    
      XP
      ╱╲
    ╱   ╲
    ZP      X'
         ╱╲
       ╱   ╲
       X     YP
       |
     some-word

ELISION
(Phonology) The loss, either historically or as a contemporary variation, of a segment or segments. | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001

ELLIPSIS

1. (Syntax) From Latin ellipsis, which in turn is from Greek ἔλλειψῖς ('a falling short, defect, ellipse'), from ἐλλείπω ('to fall short, omit') and -σις (verbal noun suffix). The term ellipsis is used for cases of rule-governed omission of constituents that are notionally and syntactically required in other contexts. Most typically, ellipsis occurs in contexts where the notional content of the ellipted constituents is recoverable from the immediately preceding context.
   1. Pat plays soccer, but Dany doesn't [...].
    The term is rarely used with a strictly defined meaning. Linguists have often attempted to distinguish various different types of non-expression of otherwise syntactically required constituents, using notions such as deletion, null instantiation and zero anaphora. There is no agreement about how these terms should be used and which distinctions need to be drawn. | Glottopedia, 2014
2. (Syntax) Consider the following examples, which illustrate different elliptical constructions—sluicing (1b), auxiliary-stranding VP ellipsis (1d), and NP ellipsis in Spanish (1f):
   1. Ellipsis—meaning without form necessitating an overt antecedent
      a. Someone was crowned America's next drag superstar, but I can't remember who was crowned America's next drag superstar.
      b. Someone was crowned America's next drag superstar, but I can't remember who.
      c. Have you watched the latest season of UNHhhh? I haven't watched the latest season of UNHhhh.
      d. Have you watched the latest season of UNHhhh? I haven't.
      e.
       

      Las
      the.F.PL

      películas
      movies

      de
      of

      Varda
      Varda

      y
      and

      las
      the.F.PL

      películas
      movies

      de
      of

      Buñuel
      Buñuel

      son
      are

      mis
      my

      favoritas.
      favorite

        'Varda's films and Buñuel's films are my favorite.'
      f.

      Las

      películas

      de

      Varda

      y

      las

      de

      Buñuel

      son

      mis

      favoritas.

        'Varda's films and Buñuel's are my favorite.'
    | Rodrigo Ranero Echeverría, 2021
3. (Syntax) Natural languages allow us to elide material that is provided contextually:
   1. a. Someone murdered Joe but we don't know who (murdered him).
      b. Joe was murdered but we don't know who # (murdered him).
    All languages seem to allow some forms of ellipsis, and it is easy to see why. Ellipsis:
   • Is efficient: speakers get away with reduced utterances while still conveying complex meanings.
   • Helps establish common ground: by eliding material, speakers signal that they take it to be in common ground and topical.
    | Till Poppels and Andy Kehler, 2019
4. (Syntax) The term has been applied to a wide range of phenomena across the centuries, from any situation in which words appear to be missing (in St. Isidore's definition), to a much narrower range of particular constructions. Ellipsis continues to be of central interest to theorists of language exactly because it represents a situation where the usual form/meaning mappings, the algorithms, structures, rules, and constraints that in nonelliptical sentences allow us to map sounds and gestures onto their corresponding meanings, break down. In fact, in ellipsis, the usual mappings seem to be entirely absent. In ellipsis, there is meaning without form.
    In generative linguistics, research has focused largely on two sets of constructions. Central examples of the first set, drawn from English, include sluicing as in (1), verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis) as in (2), and NP-ellipsis (or N⁰-ellipsis) as in (3). (Ellipsis of at least one of these kinds seems to be found in every language in which it has been looked for.)
   1. Lauren can play something, but I don't know what.
   2. Lauren can play the guitar and Mike can, too.
   3. Lauren can play five instruments, and Mike can play six.
    In each case, the second clause can be understood as in (4)-(6).
   4. Lauren can play something, but I don't know what Lauren can play.
   5. Lauren can play the guitar and Mike can play the guitar, too.
   6. Lauren can play five instruments, and Mike can play six instruments.
    A second set of constructions in which ellipsis has been invoked include stripping (or bare argument ellipsis) in (7), gapping in (8), fragment answers in (9), as well as a host of other cases that fall under the general rubric of conjunction reduction:
   7. a. Lauren can play the guitar, {and Mike, too / and Mike as well / but not Mike}.
      b. Lauren can play the guitar better than Mike.
   8. a. Lauren can play the guitar, and Mike the violin.
      b. Lauren can play the guitar better than Mike the violin.
   9. Q: Who can play the guitar?
      A: (Not) Lauren.
    | Jason Merchant, 2019

ELLIPSIS MISMATCH

1. (Syntax) Or, antecedent-ellipsis mismatch. Many formal accounts assume that the antecedent and ellipsis must match in syntactic form, typically stated in terms of a formal syntactic identity constraint (e.g. Sag 1976; Williams 1977; Lappin 1992, 1996; Fiengo and May 1994). However, the acceptability of antecedent-ellipsis mismatches in examples like (1a–d) challenges this view (Dalrymple et al. 1991; Hardt 1993; Lascarides & Asher 1993; Kehler 2000). For instance, (1a) involves an active ellipsis clause with a passive antecedent, yet there appears to be little to no degradation in acceptability resulting from this syntactic mismatch.
   1. a. This information could have been released by Gorbachov, but he chose not to release this information .
      b. This problem was to have been looked into, but obviously nobody did look into this problem .
      c. Of course this theory could be expressed using SDRSs, but for the sake of simplicity we have chosen not to express this theory using SDRSs .
      d. In March, four fireworks manufacturers asked that the decision be reversed, and on Monday the ICC did reverse the decision .
    | Dan Parker, 2018
2. (Syntax) It is well-known that syntactic mismatches may arise between the material missing in the elliptic clause (the target) and the material present in the full clause (the source): the source and the target have different syntactic categories, or different grammatical features. In (1a) there is tense mismatch between the source and the target; in (1b) agreement mismatch; in (1c) voice mismatch (Hardt 1993, Kehler 2000); and in (1d) category mismatch (Kehler 2000).
   1. a. I have looked into this problem and you should look into that problem.
      b. Paul is at home and his sons are at school.
      c. This problem was to have been looked into, but obviously nobody did look at it.
      d. This letter deserves a response, but before you do respond ...
    | Anne Abeillé, Berthold Crysmann, and Aoi Shiraïshi, 2016
3. (Syntax) Sag cited the example in (1), taken from a Star Trek rerun, and pointed out that the difference in voice is in this case "ignored".
   1. Botanist: That can all be explained.
      Mr. Spock: Please do explain . (Sag 1976)
    Over the years researchers working on ellipsis have collected more examples like (1), usually from corpora and spontaneous conversation, assembling what amounts to a canon of acceptable mismatches—data that have been cited and re-cited over the years. A handful of these examples are repeated below.
   2. A lot of this material can be presented in a fairly informal and accessible fashion, and often I do. (Dalrymple et al. 1991)
   3. This information could have been released by Gorbachev, but he chose not to. (Hardt 1993)
   4. Four fireworks manufacturers asked that the decision be reversed, and on Monday the ICC did. (Dalrymple et al. 1991)
   5. This problem was to have been looked into, but obviously nobody did. (Kehler 2000)
    In each case, a mismatch between antecedent and target is observed, but the ellipsis is acceptable. | Laura Kertz, 2010

ELLIPSIS PARALLELISM
(Syntax) Ellipsis is ungrammatical in tautologous conditionals (1) in terms of ellipsis parallelism.

1. a. If John₁ is wrong, then he₁ is wrong.
   b. * If John₁ is wrong, then he₁ is wrong .

2. Ellipsis of a constituent ε is licensed only if at LF there is some constituent E that reflexively dominates ε and the discourse contains an antecedent LF A such that either:
   1. [[A]] ∈ F(E) and A ≠ E; or
   2. [[A]] = F(E).

1. ε = wrong  E = he₁ [is]_F   F(E) = {W(g(1)), ¬W(g(1))}
   A = John₁ is wrong  [[A]] = W(g(1))  [[A]] ∈ F(E), but A = E

ELLIPSIS SITE
(Syntax) In ellipsis, what's in the silence? How do speakers understand utterances like (1) to (3), which are incomplete on the surface? The <bracketed> portions below indicate the apparent content of the ellipsis sites:

1. Someone was crowned America's next drag superstar, but I can't remember who <was crowned America's next drag superstar>.
2. Have you watched the latest season of UNHhhh? I haven't <watched the latest season of UNHhhh>.
3. Las películas de Varda y las <películas> de Buñuel son mis favoritas.
   'Varda's films and Buñuel's are my favorite.'

ELLIPTICAL CONSTRUCTION
(Syntax) A construction that lacks an element that is recoverable or inferable from the context. In (1), you are is understood, as in Fire when you are ready.

1. English
   Fire when ready.

Page Last Modified April 13, 2024

 

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