Pseudo-sluicing in Turkish: A pro-form Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates pseudo-sluicing constructions in Turkish and argues that they can be best accounted for by a pro-form analysis. The explanation rests on the properties of pseudo-sluicing in Turkish such as lack of case connectivity, presence of copula in the pseudo-sluice, lack of island effect and the ungrammaticality with sprouting. All these characteristics significantly challenge a possible elliptical cleft approach, and provide evidence for a pro-form analysis where the wh-word is preceded by a null e-type pronoun, as originally suggested for sluicing-like constructions in Mandarin Chinese (cf. Adams 2004, Adams and Tomioka 2012).