The complement of reduced parentheticals

This contribution is concerned with a quite frequent type of parenthetical construction in German like Theo kam – sagt Paul – mit seinem Hund (Theo brought – says Paul – his dog). The propositional argument of the parenthetical verb is not saturated within the boundaries of the parenthetical string. However, its interpretative content is provided by the host clause. I argue that the missing argument is nevertheless present in the syntactic representation. Two possible modes of representation, namely by an implicit argument or by a trace/copy of the host, are rejected in favour of a representation by an empty pronominal which is anaphorically linked to the host. Based on this account, I further discuss apparent restrictions on the lexical choice of the parenthetical verb and its co-constituents.