ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the two main types of (presumed) ellipsis that are prototypically found in coordinate structures: conjunction reduction and gapping. CONJUNCTION REDUCTION involves elision of material in one coordinand (the target coordinand) on the basis of phonetically identical material in another coordinand (the antecedent coordinand). The tradition following Ross (1967) distinguishes two different forms: forward conjunction reduction (FCR) refers to cases where the antecedent precedes the target, as in (1a), and backward conjunction reduction (BCR) refers to cases where the antecedent follows the target, as in (1b).
[[Jan heeft Els bezocht] en [Jan heeft haar het nieuws verteld]].
[FCR]
Jan has Els visited and Jan has her the news told
‘Jan has visited Els and told her the news.’
[[Jan heeft Els bezocht] en [Marie heeft Peter bezocht]].
[BCR]
Jan has Els visited and Marie has Peter visited
‘Jan has visited Els and Marie has visited Peter.’
