Resumen de Pseudoclefts and ellipsis

Marcel den Dikken, André Meinunger, Chris Wilder

• This paper argues that specificational pseudoclefts (SPCs) come in two types. In SPCs with the order wh-clause < be < XP (Type A), the wh-clause is a question and XP is a full finite IP, usually reduced (leaving a DP, VP, AP, PP or CP remnant) by ellipsis of the type also operative in Question-Answer pairs (QAPs). In SPCs with the order XP < be < wh-clause (Type B), XP (=DP, VP, AP, PP or CP) is not reduced from IP by ellipsis, but forms the subject of a copular sentence whose predicate is the wh-clause. The analysis explains an asymmetry in ‘connectivity’ with respect to Negative Polarity Items (found in Type A SPCs and QAPs but not in Type B SPCs), along with other similarities between QAPs and Type A SPCs and differences between the two types of SPC, which competing approaches fail to capture.