Re: Comments on Tokana Reference Grammar

At 01:22 PM 12/11/98 -0800, Matt Pearson wrote:
>On Fri, 11 Dec 1998, John Cowan wrote:
>> ellipsis vs. gaps:  I am troubled by the blanket statement that
>.....[snip lots of interesting stuff].......
>(1) Gapping to indicate coreference with the topic appears to be
>obligatory, whereas ellipsis is optional.
>
>(2) Elided noun phrases are generally coreferential with the topic.
>Thus an elided pronoun and a gap would probably never occur within the
>same argument-domain.  Your sentence, "Han believes that saw", would
>thus be unlikely to occur.
>
>I've gotta go now, but I'll try to answer this question in more detail
>when I have more time.  In the meantime, keep reading, and thanks for
>taking this so seriously!  :-)
>
>Matt.
>
Could you explain the difference between gapping and ellipsis?

-------------------------------------------------
Tim Smith
timsmith@global2000.net

The human mind is inherently fallible.  It sees patterns where there is only
random clustering, overestimates and underestimates odds depending on
emotional need, ignores obvious facts that contradict already established
conclusions.  Hopes and fears become detailed memories.  And absolutely
correct conclusions are drawn from completely inadequate evidence.
        - Alexander Jablokov, _Deepdrive_ (Avon Books, 1998, p. 269)