VP-ellipsis and verbal inflection in Hungarian

Abstract

The paper treats VP-ellipsis data in Hungarian from the perspectiveof identity requirements between the elided and the anteceding V-form. Theexamination of the data yields the generalization that agreement marking apparentlyfalls under the notion of sloppy identity, while tense marking shows littlevariability. Nevertheless it is argued here that the licensing of ellipsisobserves the strict identity requirement: elided Agr is not only recoverablefrom the anteceding V-form in a parallel clause, but, more locally, from theanchor of agreement (subject, object). Likewise, the ellipsis of inffinitivalmarking can be locally licensed by relying on selectional properties. Theframework of the analyses is Distributed Morphology, a late insertion theory,whereby ellipsis is regarded neither as deletion, nor as reconstruction, butas non-insertion of phonological material at the level of morphology.