Gapping

In linguistics, gapping is a type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures.[1] Gapping usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present. This material is "gapped" from the non-initial conjuncts of a coordinate structure. Gapping exists in many languages, but by no means in all of them, and gapping has been studied extensively and is therefore one of the more understood ellipsis mechanisms.[2] Stripping is viewed as a particular manifestation of the gapping mechanism where just one remnant (instead of two or more) appears in the gapped/stripped conjunct.

  1. ^ Gapping is limited to coordinate structures; it does not occur independent of coordination, as noted by McCawley (1988:48f.) and Kroeger (2004:35).
  2. ^ For prominent studies of gapping, see for instance Ross (1970), Jackendoff (1971), Kuno (1976), Hankamer (1979), Hartmann (2000), Osborne (2006), Johnson (2009).