VP Ellipsis: Toward a Dynamic, Structural Account
Ruth Kempson, Wilfried Meyer-Viol, Dov M. Gabbay · 1999
Abstract In this chapter we argue that VP ellipsis provides evidence that natural language interpretation is a structure-building process. Elliptical expressions are analyzed, as are pronominals, as involving a copy device which assigns as value to the ellipsis site a representation based on what is independently set up as part of the interpretation in context. The analysis is set within a formal model of language understanding which defines interpretation as a dynamic metalevel process of incrementally building up propositional structure for natural language strings on a left-right basis, with anaphoric and ellipsis resolution as part of that process. The analysis assigns a single input specification for a given fragment, but nevertheless captures both the multiple interpretations of a single elliptical form relative to a fixed interpretation of some antecedent form, and the subjacency restrictions applying to antecedent-contained ellipsis reconstruction. The conclusion is that natural languages are metalevel tools for projecting forms over which inference is defined, and are not themselves regular inference systems.