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Article published In:
Language and Linguistics
Vol. 19:4 (2018) ► pp.635–662

Deriving sluicing-like constructions in Isbukun Bunun

| National Taiwan Normal University

This paper investigates the sluicing-like constructions (SLCs) in Isbukun Bunun, a language which always places its wh-words at the left-peripheral position, and it is argued that genuine sluicing is not available in this language. The evidence in favor of the pseudo-sluicing analysis draws on the behavior of how-phrases, the failure of implicit discourse anaphoric arguments and the absence of sloppy identity reading in Isbukun SLCs. These properties are otherwise hard to accommodate in a movement and deletion approach but rather follow from the view that SLCs in Isbukun Bunun are derived from independent syntactic operations including pro-drop.

Keywords: sluicing, pseudo-sluicing, wh-formation, pro-drop, Isbukun Bunun
Article outline
  • 1.Setting the stage
  • 2.Isbukun Bunun: Word order and question formation
  • 3.Deriving SLCs in Isbukun Bunun: A case of pseudo-sluicing
    • 3.1Data and analysis
    • 3.2Arguments for the pseudo-sluicing analysis
      • 3.2.1Behavior of how-phrase
      • 3.2.2Implicit anaphoric arguments
      • 3.2.3Absence of sloppy reading
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 10 October 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00023.wu
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