Gapping is low coordination (plus VP-ellipsis): A reply to Johnson

Johnson (2009) argues that gapping — e.g. Some had ordered mussels, and others swordfish — does not arise through ellipsis because gapping has properties that VP-ellipsis does not. He proposes instead that the gap in gapping results from low coordination and across-the-board movement. I argue that the across-the-board movement component of Johnson’s account should be abandoned, as it does not derive any of the unique properties of gapping. Moreover, it fails to derive the correct surface form for gapping in certain syntactic contexts. I revive an ellipsis account of gapping in which it is low coordination plus VP-ellipsis. This correctly generates the gapping sentences that are problematic for Johnson. Once the information-structural properties of low coordinations are taken into consideration — their coordinates must have parallel focus structures — it also derives the unique properties of gapping.