Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: There are differing theories concerning the construction dubbed swiping by Merchant 2002. Some theories predict that the inverted preposition/wh-word order characteristic of swiping is idiosyncratic to prepositions and wh-words in particular and does not generalize to other elements. Other theories predict that swiping is merely a particular instantiation of a generalizable possibility for inverted word orders under ellipsis. In this paper I provide evidence for this latter type of theory by showing that the characteristics of swiping extend beyond prepositionals and wh-words. The generalization is that whatever can extrapose and be extracted from can enter into a swiping like construction.
Author: Bradley Larson
Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G3343740635
OpenAlex ID: W26256106