Ellipsis and discourse-linking

This paper provides an account of the distribution of the forms of ellipsis called Sluicing, NP-ellipsis and VP-ellipsis. It argues that 1. (i) ellipsis is a pro-form, 2. (ii) the pro-form is within an Hmax, H a functional head, by LF, 3. (iii) this functional head has the property of being Discourse-Linking, which licenses the empty category in the syntax. Most of the data base is taken from English, but the analyses include VP-ellipsis phenomena in Italian and NP-ellipsis in Spanish which have not been discussed within the generative tradition until now.