RoLinC: Laura Stigliano

Speaker: Laura Stigliano (Ohio State University)

Title: ​The landscape of verbal ellipsis in Galician (joint work with María Morado Vázquez)

Date/Time: 28/10/2025 2pm

Abstract: This talk discusses the landscape of verbal ellipsis in Galician, focusing on Aux-Stranding VP-Ellipsis (1B), Verb-Echo Answers (2B), and Modal Ellipsis. Galician is unique among Romance languages (along with Portuguese) in allowing the first two phenomena:

(1)       A:        Sonia ten          comido  centolas       na      cea     de Nadal?

            Sonia have.3sg eat.ptcp spider.crabs in.the dinner of Christmas

‘Has Sonia eaten spider crabs for Christmas?’

B:        (Si,)  ten.

(yes) have.3sg

‘Yes, she has.’

(2)       A:        Comeste o    bolo?

ate         the cake

‘Did you eat the cake?’

B:        (Sim,) comi.

yes       ate

‘Yes, I did.’

We propose that the distribution of these elliptical constructions is highly restricted, occurring only in contexts involving polarity or contrastive focus. We account for this restricted licensing by proposing that the ellipsis-triggering [E]-feature must Agree with a focus feature in a higher structural position. Furthermore, we argue that Verb-Echo Answers do arise from V-Stranding VPE, tackling the core debate surrounding object gaps. Using tests that probe the size of the ellipsis site, our analysis rules out both the smaller Argument Ellipsis structure and the larger TP-Ellipsis structure. This finding is significant as it challenges recent proposals claiming that V-Stranding VP-Ellipsis is impossible in language.

Finally, we examine Modal Ellipsis (3), a construction widely attested across Romance:

(3)       Sonia quere      mercar uns    zapatos novos, pero sabe         que non debe.

Sonia want.3sg  buy.inf some shoes    new     but   know.3sg that no   should.3sg

‘Sonia wants to buy new shoes, but she knows she shouldn’t.’

Evidence from structural mismatches and extraction tests supports treating Modal Ellipsis as a form of surface anaphora, but a closer examination provides evidence that Modal Ellipsis in Galician should actually be analyzed as an instance of TP-Ellipsis.

Overall, our analysis refines the typology of ellipsis in Galician and Romance. We defend the existence of V-Stranding VPE and propose an Agree-based licensing condition for verbal ellipses. Our findings also hold significant implications for the cross-linguistic theory of ellipsis.

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