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In:The Sociolinguistics of Grammar
Edited by Tor A. Åfarli and Brit Mæhlum
[Studies in Language Companion Series 154] 2014
► pp. 171–190

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Norwegian discourse ellipses in the left periphery – interacting structural and semantic restrictions

Published online: 16 April 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.154.09nyg
In Norwegian discourse ellipses, elements in the left edge of the clause are most frequently elided. Yet, a topic drop analysis is argued to be empirically too narrow, since occasionally the whole C-domain is silent. I propose an analysis which combines semantic and structural restrictions: Ellipsis must obey the semantic recoverability condition. On the structural side, the whole C-domain can be unrealized only when all the elements are part of the same Agree-relation. If the constituent in (spec,CP) is not part of this agreement system, e.g. if the object is topicalized, ellipsis of the whole domain is illicit. Ellipsis of only (spec,CP) is possible in any case, given that the semantic identity criteria are fulfilled.
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