The Interpretation of VP-ellipsis: based on the default-inheritance theory.

VP-생략구문의 해석 : 디폴트 상속 이론을 기반으로

The purpose of this paper is to propose a theory for the interpretation of VP-ellipsis. Although there have been various proposals such as Sag(1976), Williams(1977), Darlymple et al.(1991), there remain many problems, especially with respect to the interpretation of pronouns. Assuming that a coordinate sentence forms a kind of discourse, we propose a theory which consists of two subparts, i. e. a revised HPSG for the syntactic treatment and a so-called 'default-inheritance' mechanism for the interpretation of elliptical parts. By means of this theory, we can explain various elliptical constructions of Fiengo and May(1994), in which pronouns are interpreted ambiguously within the elliptical conjuncts of coordinate sentences according to the related syntactic and the discourse structures.