Short answers in Scottish Gaelic and their theoretical implications

Thoms, G. (2016) Short answers in Scottish Gaelic and their theoretical implications. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 34(1), pp. 351-391. (doi: 10.1007/s11049-015-9304-x)

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of a novel short answer strategy in Scottish Gaelic, called the Verb-Answer, which differs from standard fragment answers in allowing us to directly observe some of the clausal structure in which it is embedded. It is shown that the Verb-Answer is identical to the fragment answer in virtually all other respects, demanding a unified analysis, and it is demonstrated that pursuing a unified analysis is problematic for Direct Interpretation approaches to short answers, but straightforward for the Silent Structure approach of Morgan (1973) and Merchant (2004). The extended typology of short answer strategies therefore provides an argument in favour of the latter approach to elliptical phenomena.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Thoms, Dr Gary
• Authors: Thoms, G.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• Journal Name: Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• ISSN: 0167-806X
• ISSN (Online): 1573-0859
• Published Online: 31 July 2015
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 Springer
• First Published: First published in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 34(1):351-391
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher