Abstract

This study investigates the syntax of sluicing in Jibbali from a generative perspective to identify its morphological and syntactic properties. It also seeks to provide an explanation for the preposition stranding sluices that seem to violate of the Preposition Stranding Generalization (PSG) posited by Merchant (2001). The study concludes that sluicing exists in Jibbali and that it results from an overt wh-movement operation plus IP ellipsis at PF. Furthermore, it is argued that Jibbali sluicing allows for two sources of clausal ellipsis, referred to herein as sluicing and pseudosluicing. Both sluicing and pseudosluicing are derived by wh-movement and TP deletion despite the fact that sluicing stems from regular wh-questions, whereas pseudosluicing derives from a copular underlying source, i.e., cleft wh-questions. With regards to preposition-less (P-less) sluices, it is argued that such sluices are instances of pseudosluicing and that they do not involve preposition stranding as wh-movement in pseudosluicing proceeds from Spec TP. The proposed analysis for both forms of clausal ellipsis rests upon two arguments: a) the analysis of pronouns in the elided clause as copular pronouns, and b) the restriction on clefting non-nominal expressions in Jibbali which mirrors the parallelism between P-less sluices and cleft wh-questions in the language.

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