Sentence amalgamation

PhD ceremony: Ms. M.E. Kluck, 14.30 uur, Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Sentence amalgamation

Promotor(s): prof. J. Koster

Faculty: Arts

Kluck’s thesis presents a novel analysis of the phenomenon sentence amalgamation, a construction type in which to clauses appear to be intertwined. She argues that amalgams involve a particular type of ellipsis, namely sluicing. Contrary to regular sluicing, the antecedent clause lack a correlate to the pivot constituent that moves out of the ellipsis site. Based on their syntactic opacity and their peculiar interpretive effects, amalgams are then analysed as a type of parenthetical construal, i.e. anchored parentheticals. The apparent dependency between the category of the pivot constituent and the distribution of the intertwined clause is ultimately derived via a general licensing condition on sluicing.