The research presented in this paper investigates Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE) in the Nakh-Daghestanian language Muira Dargwa, focusing on a specific construction where part of a complex predicate (CPr) is elided. The study, conducted by the author through fieldwork with native speakers, addresses a gap in the literature regarding the typology of ellipsis constructions across languages. While VPE has been widely studied in English and other languages, the nuances of VPE in Muira Dargwa offer new insights into how ellipsis can manifest in a language that has not been thoroughly examined in this context.

To explore this phenomenon, the author collected data from native speakers of Muira Dargwa, focusing on examples where both the internal argument and the non-verbal element of a CPr are deleted. This approach is novel as it challenges the prevailing assumption that VPE requires head movement, positing instead that the ellipsis can occur at a smaller constituent level than the verb phrase itself. The methodology involved eliciting acceptability judgments from multiple speakers to ensure the reliability of the data, which was then analyzed to differentiate between two potential analyses of the construction: vVPE, which deletes all elements within the ellipsis site simultaneously, and Argument Ellipsis, which deletes elements incrementally.

The key findings indicate that Muira Dargwa exhibits a form of v-Stranding Verb Phrase Ellipsis (vVPE), where the elided constituent is indeed smaller than the vP. The author demonstrates that this construction adheres to established ellipsis licensing conditions, such as proper licensing and adherence to antecedence conditions. The analysis reveals that the ellipsis in Muira Dargwa is not uniform and exhibits features that distinguish it from VPE in English and VVPE in other verb-raising languages. For instance, the elided constituent in Muira Dargwa is shown to be smaller than what is typically observed in other languages, which has implications for understanding the syntactic and semantic constraints governing ellipsis.

The broader significance of this research lies in its contribution to the understanding of ellipsis across languages, particularly in under-researched language families like the Nakh-Daghestanian languages. By expanding the typology of ellipsis constructions, the findings encourage further investigation into how ellipsis operates in diverse linguistic contexts, which is crucial for fields such as language technology and natural language processing (NLP). The insights gained from this study may inform the development of more nuanced models for machine translation and ellipsis resolution, highlighting the need for comprehensive data from a wider range of languages to enhance our understanding of linguistic phenomena.

Source: glossa-journal.org