Contrast and Island Sensitivity in Clausal Ellipsis

Abstract This paper offers a comprehensive and uniform theory of island repair in clausal ellipsis (sluicing and fragments). We show that the correct generalization defines the repairing and the nonrepairing types ofTPellipsis in terms ofcontrastivity:TPellipsis withcontrastiveremnants does not repair islands, whereasTPellipsis withnoncontrastiveremnants does. Contrary to the influential account of Merchant ( ), we base our explanation for the island sensitivity of contrastive fragments entirely on the notion of Parallelism. The island insensitivity of noncontrastive remnants, on the other hand, follows from the island node being deleted atPF. With this we simplify the theory of islands, and, by treating the different types of clausal ellipsis on a par, we move away from the construction‐specific study of ellipsis that has characterized syntactic theorizing for the last forty years.