On nominal ellipsis and the valuation of definiteness in romanian

Abstract

The paper proposes a syntactic and interpretative account of nominal ellipsis in Romanian DPs. After reviewing previous accounts, we conclude that a suitable theory should unify total ellipsis (with no remnant) with partial ellipsis, (with at least one remnant). In the proposed theory, ellipsis is viewed as a discourse grammar phenomenon, presupposing the retrieval of suitable discourse antecedent. Since the ellipsis site is anaphorically related to the antecedent, it will be syntactically definite. Definiteness checking is thus obligatory in any DP which contains an ellipsis site, and it is this step which provides the unity of nominal ellipsis. Therefore, ellipsis is a double figure, involving both the anaphoricity of the elided NP and the contrastivity of the remnant (if present), a feature which triggers movement to the DP left periphery. In light of this theory, we examine two cases of nominal ellipsis in Romanian: partial ellipsis with cardinal remnants and total ellipsis.

Keywords

• nominal ellipsis
• anaphoricity
• contrastivity
• definiteness valuation
• partitivity