On ineffable predicates: Bilingual Greek–English code-switching under ellipsis

Abstract

Abstract In Greek–English code-switching contexts, Greek verb phrases can antecede apparent verb phrase ellipsis after English auxiliaries, even when a non-elliptical code-switched continuation with a Greek verb would not be well-formed. These facts, together with others from the previous literature, are compatible with a theory of ellipsis that posits an identity relation stated over abstract syntactic structures: mere semantic identity is too generous and fails to block sentences which are judged unacceptable.