N-ellipsis in Spanish

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that a morphologically ‘rich’ language like Spanish allows for various types of non-lexical categories, which are licensed by agreement features. An analysis of this kind has been proposed in the literature for non-lexical subjects that are licensed by the ‘rich’ paradigms of verbal morphology. Similar analyses have been adopted for null nouns resulting from ellipsis, which are assumed to be licensed by the agreement features of adjectives and determiners. Interestingly, however, the ‘rich’ morphology of the definite article in Spanish does not suffice for the licensing of null nouns. A modifier is required, which has been argued in the literature to supply the missing features. In this paper, we will argue, however, that the definite article in Spanish requires an additional predicate because it is semantically too weak for the licensing of N-ellipsis. The relation between the determiner and the predicate is established via agreement with the empty noun and is only possible if certain configurational conditions are met. Under this analysis it is possible to dispense with the notion of Head-government, as proposed in the Minimalist Program. Instead of being licensed through government by a head, the empty category resulting from ellipsis is licensed in the specifier position of a functional projection. This account of the facts follows quite naturally from the analyses of modifiers advocated in Kayne’s (1994) Antisymmetry Theory.