Nonlocality and Intervening Focus in Sloppy Identity Interpretation

This paper investigates into the nonlocal sloppy identity interpretation in English and Korean which allegedly obtains when the pronominal variable within a smaller elided or anaphorized VP takes as its (re-)binder another VP-external NP than the subject NP of this VP. Takahashi and Fox (2005) and Ha (2010) argue that this interpretation interacts intimately with the MaxElide operation, which requires that the biggest deletable VP be elided or anaphorized to get the interpretation via (re-)binding unless intervening focus is present. In this paper we argue that contrary to their analysis, the MaxElide operation does not come into play in the VP ellipsis or pro-form construction concerned. Rather we suggest following Fiengo and May (1994) that a discourse coherence condition is a more important deciding factor in yielding nonlocal sloppy identity reading