Verb-phrase ellipsis and complex predicates in Hindi-Urdu

Abstract

Complex predicates are found in diverse languages and feature multiple predicates that map to a monoclausal syntactic structure. They represent a fascinating instance of the systematic combination of syntactically and semantically independent elements to function as a unit. While complex predicates in Hindi-Urdu have received significant attention (Hook 1974; Mohanan 1994; Butt 1995), not yet addressed are the ways in which these constructions interact with verb phrase ellipsis (VPE), which has famously revealed much about the structure of the verbal domain. In head-final languages like Hindi-Urdu, the nature of the morphologically and lexically complex verb is difficult to probe; any head movement would typically be string-vacuous. The results of the investigation of VPE in complex predicates in this article suggest Hindi-Urdu features syntactic head movement of the components of the complex predicate to a functional head outside the vP. I build on Butt and Ramchand’s (2005) approach to Hindi-Urdu complex predicates featuring decomposed verbal structure to develop an account of the verbal domain that captures the syntactic connectedness between components of the complex predicate. This article engages with a set of highly topical questions concerning the status of head movement as a unified phenomenon (Hartman 2011; Lacara 2016; McCloskey 2016; Gribanova and Harizanov 2016; i.a.) and develops V-stranding VPE (McCloskey 1991; Goldberg 2005; Gribanova 2013a, 2013b; Sailor 2018) as a critical tool for investigating verb-final languages under this research program. Ultimately at stake is a contribution to the far larger project of elucidating the nature of head movement in head-final languages.