The Syntax of Silence: Sluicing, Islands, and the Theory of Ellipsis

by Jason Merchant

A primary goal of contemporary theoretical linguistics is to develop a theory of the correspondence between sound (or gesture) and meaning. This sound-meaning correspondence breaks down completely in the case of ellipsis, and yet various forms of ellipsis are pervasive in natural words and phrases which should be in the linguistic signal go missing. How this should be possible is the focus of Jason Merchant's investigation. He focuses on the form of ellipsis known as sluicing, a common feature of interrogative clauses, such as in Sally's out hunting - guess what!; and Someone called, but I can't tell you who. It is the most frequently found cross-linguistic form of ellipsis. Dr Merchant studies the phenomenon across 24 languages, and attempts to explain it in linguistic and behavioural terms.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published August 16, 2001

Reviews

[Shaimaa]

A very well structured and paraphrased book. It helped me a lot and I think my last resort analysis for the open-puzzle at hand would take a route of semantics (semantic identity more specifically). Let’s see how it turns out.
Merchant is a poetic genius; he’s got the balance between academic and engaging writing all right!

[Anie]

This is a beautiful book. It is carefully researched, with immense amounts of cross-linguistic evidence; it is clearly written, and it is engaging. Fantastic read.

[Juman Albukhari]

very helpful for my research