Processing Sluicing and VP-Ellipsis in English

Processing Sluicing and VP-Ellipsis in English

The goal of this study is to explore an integrative explanation on an island effect to two types of ellipsis, sluicing and VP-ellipsis constructions, in terms of cognitive processing load As for the sluice, there are two types, those with a Wh-remnant and Its antecedent co-occurring and those with a Wh-remnant and no antecedent. One peculiar difference between the two is that one without an antecedent is sensitive to an island effect, winle one With no antecedent is not In order to explain tins contrast, Chung, Ladusaw, & McCloskey (1995) proposed a version of copying and reconstruction operation However, their idea cannot apply to the case of VP-ellipsis With respect to an Island effect, whtle Chomsky and Lasmk's (1993) argument of movement and deletion offers an account of an Island effect to the both types of ellipsis The latter will be advocated in terms of an account of processing load, which was discussed in Kluender (1998). Frazier & Clifton's (1998) and Frazier's (2002)