Prosody & Ellipsis
Ellipsis is a phenomena where the information structure, syntax and prosody meets. Such constructions heavily depend on discourse level inter-utterance dependencies, as well as syntactic and prosodic well-formedness. During my post-doctoral years in Leiden, I investigated if and how prosody mediates the well-formedness of utterances with ellipsis. During this inquiry, I had a chance to expand the language inventory of my research and investigated English, Hungarian, Dutch and Icelandic, as well as Turkish. My focus was primarily on the prosodic and morphosyntactic phenomena that surrounds clausal ellipsis.
In collaboration with Nicole Dehé, I investigate whether ellipsis is an instance of radical deaccentuation in Icelandic. Considering that the discourse anaphoric part of the elliptical utterances are given in the previous discourse, they are often deaccented in the non-elliptical counterparts of such utterances in Intonation Languages. In a production experiment, we have tested whether the given parts of utterances that usually get elided bear any accentuation or not when they are fully pronounced. Our results show that, even if the given parts of utterances are indeed accented, their overall pitch register is much lower when compared to non-given contexts.
My work (with James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták) on clarification requests in English and Hungarian (in the form of echo questions) involved elliptical echo questions (echo/reprise fragments). We show that echo fragments do not involve metalinguistic conjunction, that they are formed via syntax (just as their non-echo counterparts), and that echo vs. standard fragments exhibit different syntactic locality constraints in Hungarian and English. To account for these differing locality constraints, we offer and then defend a theory in which ellipsis is licensed by a syntactically derived question under discussion (QUD) in the sense of Griffiths (2019).
In another collaboration with Anikó Lipták, I have investigated whether the unacceptable use of aggressively discourse linked wh-phrases (e.g. what the hell) in sluicing is sourced from a prosodic issue in English. Ruling out possible syntactic, semantic or extant prosodic accounts, and based on our acceptability judgment and production experiment results, we provided a novel prosodic account in which we claimed that the strict prosodic requirement in the realisation of the tune of such formulaic expressions clashes with the syntax-based prosodic prominence location in sluicing. The clash of sentence level prosodic organisation, and the prosodic of wh-the-hell creates unacceptability. We provided crosslinguistic support for our observation from Dutch and Hungarian, in similar cases of language use.
With James Griffiths, Anikó Lipták and Jason Merchant, I presented an explanation for why R-pronouns in Dutch cannot strand a preposition under clausal ellipsis whereas they can in non-elliptical environments. Based on the results of acceptability judgment experiments, we conclude that the source of the ungrammaticality of prepositionless R-pronouns in sluicing is syntactic, in which the otherwise available EPP-driven movement of the P in R-pronominal contexts is bled due to ellipsis, and hence prevents the successful derivation of a preposition stranding R-pronoun configuration.
Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Phonetic correlates of deaccentuation in Icelandic and its relation to givenness. Ms., Tübingen University.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2022. Phonetic properties of the prosody of echo questions in English and Hungarian. Ms., Leiden University.
Lipták, A. & G. Güneş. 2022. The derivational timing of ellipsis: An overview of theoretical approaches. In The derivational timing of Ellipsis, Güliz Güneş & Anikó Lipták (eds.), Oxford University Press.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2022. The Derivational Timing of Ellipsis. Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics, Oxford University Press.
Griffiths, J., G. Güneş, J. Merchant & Lipták, A. 2021. Dutch P-stranding and ellipsis: Merchant’s wrinkle ironed out. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2021 . Nuclear prominence in ellipsis: evidence from aggressively non-D-linked phrases in British English. The Journal of Linguistics.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2021. Reprise fragments in English and Hungarian: Further support for an in-situ Q-equivalence approach to clausal ellipsis. Under review for Language.
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Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Don’t deaccent Given: A challenge to Radical Deaccentuation accounts from Icelandic. Paper presented at the WS 5: Experimental and Corpus-Based Approaches to Ellipsis, 55th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea 24–27 August 2022 University of Bucharest.
Griffiths, J., G. Güneş, J. Merchant & Lipták, A. 2021. P-stranding out of Place: The bleeding effect of ellipsis on Dutch P-stranding. Paper presented at the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL) 39. Arizona/online, April.
Güneş, G. 2021. P-stranding out of Place: The bleeding effect of ellipsis on Dutch P-stranding. With James Griffiths, Anikó Lipták and Jason Merchant. GLOW 44 – Online organisation by GLOW Board, April.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2020. The unbearable lightness of WHAT? A clausal ellipsis analysis of English reprise fragments. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. Workshop in honor of the defense of Anastasiia Ionova. Leiden University – The Netherlands, January.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2020. Focus and quotation in English echo questions. DGFS 2020 – WS 12: Expressing the use-mention-distinction: An empirical perspective. Hamburg University – Germany, March.
Griffiths, J, Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2018. A Minimalist approach to Reprise Fragments. The annual meeting of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft. Stuttgart, 03/18.
Griffiths, J, Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2018. English reprise Fragments in Minimalism: an in-situ analysis. Generative Linguistics in the Old World, GLOW41. Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Hungary, April. [poster]
Güneş, G., A. Lipták & J. Merchant. 2018. Dutch sluicing and P-stranding. Grote Taaldag 2018. Utrecht – NL, February.
Güneş, G. 2018. Dutch P-stranding and ellipsis: Merchant’s wrinkle ironed out. With Anikó Lipták and Jason Merchant. Com(parative) Syn(tax) Meetings. Leiden University – The Netherlands, May.
Güneş, G. 2018. The timing of ellipsis: Introduction. With Anikó Lipták. 51st Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europae, Workshop 16: ‘The timing of ellipsis’. University of Tallinn – Estonia, August/September.
Güneş, G. 2017. Echo fragments in English: preliminary remarks. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. Com(parative) Syn(tax) Meetings. Leiden University – The Netherlands, April.
Griffiths, J, Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2017. Echo fragments. Workshop 6 (Approaches to Fragments and ellipsis in spoken and written English) of the 7th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English . Vigo, 09/17.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2016. The role of prosody sensitive particles in licensing ellipsis. 4th Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English. Poznań - Poland, September.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2016. Licensing the hell in ellipsis: A prosodic accident. Ellipsis Across Borders 2016. Sarajevo - Bosnia and Herzegovina, June.
Güneş, G. 2016. Prosodic licensing in English ellipsis. With Anikó Lipták. Ellipse: quand, pourquoi, comment. Clermont-Ferrand – France, December.
Güneş, G. 2016. Prosodic Issues in Ellipsis: and introduction. With Anikó Lipták. Workshop 'Ellipsis licensing beyond syntax'. Leiden University – The Netherlands, January.
Güneş, G. 2012. Notes on Stacked Appositives. With James Griffiths. Syntax and semantics seminar. Groningen-The Netherlands, December.
Güneş, G. 2012. Fragment Answers in Turkish. With James Griffiths. The 16th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics, Ankara-Turkey, September.
Güneş, G. 2011. The Use of Topics: Null-Objects and Null-Subjects in Turkish. Poster. 4th Conference on Syntax, Phonology and Language Analysis, Budapest-Hungary, September.
In collaboration with Nicole Dehé, I investigate whether ellipsis is an instance of radical deaccentuation in Icelandic. Considering that the discourse anaphoric part of the elliptical utterances are given in the previous discourse, they are often deaccented in the non-elliptical counterparts of such utterances in Intonation Languages. In a production experiment, we have tested whether the given parts of utterances that usually get elided bear any accentuation or not when they are fully pronounced. Our results show that, even if the given parts of utterances are indeed accented, their overall pitch register is much lower when compared to non-given contexts.
My work (with James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták) on clarification requests in English and Hungarian (in the form of echo questions) involved elliptical echo questions (echo/reprise fragments). We show that echo fragments do not involve metalinguistic conjunction, that they are formed via syntax (just as their non-echo counterparts), and that echo vs. standard fragments exhibit different syntactic locality constraints in Hungarian and English. To account for these differing locality constraints, we offer and then defend a theory in which ellipsis is licensed by a syntactically derived question under discussion (QUD) in the sense of Griffiths (2019).
In another collaboration with Anikó Lipták, I have investigated whether the unacceptable use of aggressively discourse linked wh-phrases (e.g. what the hell) in sluicing is sourced from a prosodic issue in English. Ruling out possible syntactic, semantic or extant prosodic accounts, and based on our acceptability judgment and production experiment results, we provided a novel prosodic account in which we claimed that the strict prosodic requirement in the realisation of the tune of such formulaic expressions clashes with the syntax-based prosodic prominence location in sluicing. The clash of sentence level prosodic organisation, and the prosodic of wh-the-hell creates unacceptability. We provided crosslinguistic support for our observation from Dutch and Hungarian, in similar cases of language use.
With James Griffiths, Anikó Lipták and Jason Merchant, I presented an explanation for why R-pronouns in Dutch cannot strand a preposition under clausal ellipsis whereas they can in non-elliptical environments. Based on the results of acceptability judgment experiments, we conclude that the source of the ungrammaticality of prepositionless R-pronouns in sluicing is syntactic, in which the otherwise available EPP-driven movement of the P in R-pronominal contexts is bled due to ellipsis, and hence prevents the successful derivation of a preposition stranding R-pronoun configuration.
Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Phonetic correlates of deaccentuation in Icelandic and its relation to givenness. Ms., Tübingen University.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2022. Phonetic properties of the prosody of echo questions in English and Hungarian. Ms., Leiden University.
Lipták, A. & G. Güneş. 2022. The derivational timing of ellipsis: An overview of theoretical approaches. In The derivational timing of Ellipsis, Güliz Güneş & Anikó Lipták (eds.), Oxford University Press.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2022. The Derivational Timing of Ellipsis. Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics, Oxford University Press.
Griffiths, J., G. Güneş, J. Merchant & Lipták, A. 2021. Dutch P-stranding and ellipsis: Merchant’s wrinkle ironed out. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2021 . Nuclear prominence in ellipsis: evidence from aggressively non-D-linked phrases in British English. The Journal of Linguistics.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2021. Reprise fragments in English and Hungarian: Further support for an in-situ Q-equivalence approach to clausal ellipsis. Under review for Language.
-----
Güneş, G. & N. Dehé. 2022. Don’t deaccent Given: A challenge to Radical Deaccentuation accounts from Icelandic. Paper presented at the WS 5: Experimental and Corpus-Based Approaches to Ellipsis, 55th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea 24–27 August 2022 University of Bucharest.
Griffiths, J., G. Güneş, J. Merchant & Lipták, A. 2021. P-stranding out of Place: The bleeding effect of ellipsis on Dutch P-stranding. Paper presented at the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL) 39. Arizona/online, April.
Güneş, G. 2021. P-stranding out of Place: The bleeding effect of ellipsis on Dutch P-stranding. With James Griffiths, Anikó Lipták and Jason Merchant. GLOW 44 – Online organisation by GLOW Board, April.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2020. The unbearable lightness of WHAT? A clausal ellipsis analysis of English reprise fragments. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. Workshop in honor of the defense of Anastasiia Ionova. Leiden University – The Netherlands, January.
Griffiths, J, G. Güneş & A. Lipták. 2020. Focus and quotation in English echo questions. DGFS 2020 – WS 12: Expressing the use-mention-distinction: An empirical perspective. Hamburg University – Germany, March.
Griffiths, J, Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2018. A Minimalist approach to Reprise Fragments. The annual meeting of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft. Stuttgart, 03/18.
Griffiths, J, Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2018. English reprise Fragments in Minimalism: an in-situ analysis. Generative Linguistics in the Old World, GLOW41. Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Hungary, April. [poster]
Güneş, G., A. Lipták & J. Merchant. 2018. Dutch sluicing and P-stranding. Grote Taaldag 2018. Utrecht – NL, February.
Güneş, G. 2018. Dutch P-stranding and ellipsis: Merchant’s wrinkle ironed out. With Anikó Lipták and Jason Merchant. Com(parative) Syn(tax) Meetings. Leiden University – The Netherlands, May.
Güneş, G. 2018. The timing of ellipsis: Introduction. With Anikó Lipták. 51st Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europae, Workshop 16: ‘The timing of ellipsis’. University of Tallinn – Estonia, August/September.
Güneş, G. 2017. Echo fragments in English: preliminary remarks. With James Griffiths and Anikó Lipták. Com(parative) Syn(tax) Meetings. Leiden University – The Netherlands, April.
Griffiths, J, Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2017. Echo fragments. Workshop 6 (Approaches to Fragments and ellipsis in spoken and written English) of the 7th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English . Vigo, 09/17.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2016. The role of prosody sensitive particles in licensing ellipsis. 4th Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English. Poznań - Poland, September.
Güneş, G. & A. Lipták. 2016. Licensing the hell in ellipsis: A prosodic accident. Ellipsis Across Borders 2016. Sarajevo - Bosnia and Herzegovina, June.
Güneş, G. 2016. Prosodic licensing in English ellipsis. With Anikó Lipták. Ellipse: quand, pourquoi, comment. Clermont-Ferrand – France, December.
Güneş, G. 2016. Prosodic Issues in Ellipsis: and introduction. With Anikó Lipták. Workshop 'Ellipsis licensing beyond syntax'. Leiden University – The Netherlands, January.
Güneş, G. 2012. Notes on Stacked Appositives. With James Griffiths. Syntax and semantics seminar. Groningen-The Netherlands, December.
Güneş, G. 2012. Fragment Answers in Turkish. With James Griffiths. The 16th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics, Ankara-Turkey, September.
Güneş, G. 2011. The Use of Topics: Null-Objects and Null-Subjects in Turkish. Poster. 4th Conference on Syntax, Phonology and Language Analysis, Budapest-Hungary, September.