The Ellipsis and Hierarchy in Nominals

Abstract

Within the tradition of the so-called cartographic approach to syntax (cf. Rizzi 1997; Cinque 1994, 1999; Ntelitheos 2003, 2004), the fundamental proposition is that a universally ordered set of functional heads (e.g., topic or focus) occupies independent positions with distinct semantic or pragmatic properties. Recent research on the structure of DP assumes the existence of some functional categories within nominals. For example, Ntelitheos (2003, 2004) argues that the parallelism between the clausal and nominal domains extends over the left periphery of CP/DP. In their view, nominals contain a left periphery just as clauses do, and the left peripheral projections are structurally lower than DP, as in [DP D [FocP/TopP Foc/Top [NumP Num [NP N]]]]. To be specific, their ideas are motivated by either the NP-internal morphology of topic or focus, or the DP-internal movement to Spec of TopP or FocP. In this light, this paper explores the nominal periphery of English, based on nominal ellipsis. I argue that focus and contrastivity are necessary conditions for the licensing of nominal ellipsis.