Verb phrase ellipsis examples

Verb phrase ellipsis examples. g. In this article we present an annotated corpus of verb phrase ellipsis (VPE) and related phenomena in English from the Wall Street Journal part of the Penn Treebank (Marcus et al. Ellipsis happens when we leave out (in other words, when we don’t use) items which we would normally expect to use in a sentence if we followed the grammatical rules. She will sell sea shells, and he will sell sea shells too. Jan 8, 2010 · Verb phrase ellipsis is commonly used in English conversation. ” Now, try to write a sentence using ellipsis in the following situations: An example of Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE), which is detected by the presence of an auxiliary verb without a verb phrase, is seen in example 1. In linguistics, verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis or VPE) is a type of elliptical construction and a type of anaphora in which a verb phrase has been left out (elided) provided that its antecedent can be found within the same linguistic context. and . (Here, the comma replaces the word "likes. Dec 1, 2011 · Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE) has been studied in great depth in theoretical linguistics, but empirical studies of VPE are rare. , *If John wins, then he does. For example, these paragraph starters might refer back to the phrase “several serious drawbacks” in the first paragraph, where the author promised to describe the pros and cons of TV watching. According to the syntactic account, people reproduce the syntactic structure of the antecedent during the processing of VP ellipsis. Ellipsis and substitution Ellipsis. Sentences containing verb phrase ellipsis are characterized by a missing VP, as in the second clause in (1a). The basic puzzle is how meaning is derived from an incom-plete form. She ought to obey her parents. VPE does not occur freely and manifests itself in English when verb phrases are abbreviated to an auxiliary verb (do, be, have, modal verbs) or deleted in an infinite clause (Bos, 2012). Answer ellipsis: Who ordered the linguini Jan 17, 2024 · Ellipsis, a concept regularly encountered in academic writing, is an essential stylistic device that plays a significant role in written and spoken communication. We know that the thing Jim did do was “do to the park”, but we omit it as part of this elliptical construction. Nov 11, 2022 · Common examples of modal auxiliary verbs include the following: Must; Should; Would; Ought; Should; May; Can; 7. • However,theverb (seemingly themost critical partof a verb phrase)somehow escapes deletion. The verb phrase can also include other words, such as adverbs or prepositions. , post-subject) that is characteristic of verb phrases. See the article on verb phrase ellipsis for examples. Sentence with ellipsis: Going to the gym to work out. This claim has two primary consequences: first the ellipsis site, there is still a subtle way to test which parts of the verb originated inside the ellipsis domain. (1) John3 floves his3 wifeg2. For example, a phrase like “Was thinking that I definitely need to” can easily be trimmed to just “Need to”. Verb-phrase ellipsis. We can avoid repeating an adjective, a verb, or a verb phrase and repeat only the auxiliary or modal verb. Verb phrase comes in two categories; finite and non-infinite verb phrase. ) Lee was eating the pie. www. ) In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntactic unit composed of a verb and its arguments except the subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Phrasal verbs are combinations of words that act as individual verbs when joined together. ” Example #2: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (by James Joyce) Here are some more examples, with their linguistic terms (and words omitted in brackets): Gapping: I ordered the linguini, and he [ordered] the lobster. For the purpose of the current paper, we use the term (This is a simple verb phrase. Theories differ as to how people recover the meaning of verb-phrase (VP) ellipsis. Thus, in the sentence A fat man quickly put the money into the box, the words quickly put the money into the box constitute a verb phrase; it consists of the verb put and its arguments, but not the subject a fat man. Below is the example passage again. 4 . You already learned about an example of a verb phrase ellipsis – our example about cooking dinner. Look at these examples to see how we use ellipsis: You can use my car whenever you want to. For example: ellipsis available. The sentence in (1) is an example: (1) The pedestrian called a cab, and the bellhop did too. Following Dal-rymple et al. They ought to help the downtrodden. He called the waiter and so did I. A phrase is a group of words that do not contain both a subject and a verb. After and and but Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE) is an anaphoric 1991). Cohesive Devices - Ellipsis How ellipsis is used to render texts more cohesive and readable Jul 28, 2022 · And in a verb phrase ellipsis, a verb phrase is left out. ”) Ellipsis A verb phrase ellipsis omits an entire phrase that’s anchored by a verb. 2. Verb phrases comprise a helping verb with the main verb. Pro-forms replace verb phrases in a number of ways. Feb 3, 2022 · The fourth is substitution. (a subject and an object without a verb) But from what I understand, the definition doesn't rule out the first and second examples I have provided. The word ellipsis comes from an ancient Greek word that means “to leave out. Bill3 does1 too. Verb Phrase Ellipsis. Building on these results, we exam-ine where in the generation is rendered opaque by phonological operations such as deletion. For example: They should come to the restaurant and so should you. ) Verb phrases are necessary to express the main verb's tense, mood, or voice. Verb phrase ellipsis: I’ll order the linguini and you can [order the linguini], too. Apr 1, 2008 · VP ellipsis is the omission of a verb phrase that is necessary for a complete formal representation of the sentence. This example has Oct 11, 2020 · What is an ellipsis? An ellipsis (. Phrasal verbs. ) can be shown to obey the many constraints on verb phrase ellipsis (ê£u) in general. VPE occurs when an auxiliary or modal verb abbreviates an entire verb phrase found elsewhere in the context, as in the following example:1 Aug 1, 2006 · The VP recycling hypothesis predicts that finding an antecedent should be easier if the antecedent of the verb phrase ellipsis has the canonical properties of a verb phrase, i. (Menzel, 2017). 464-465). VP ellipsis is the omission of a verb phrase that is necessary for a complete formal representation of the sentence. In other informal questions, we can leave out the auxiliary verbs be, have and do. This is most common in informal questions and particularly with the verbs want and have got. This dissertation concerns itself with Verb Phrase ellipsis, in which a Verb Phrase (VP) is left unexpressed, although it is clearly understood from context. , Merchant, 2018; Reich, 2018, for recent overviews). Oct 11, 2023 · One line of analysis, initiated in Otani & Whitman 1991 and developed further in works such as Goldberg 2005, Gribanova 2013, Funakoshi 2016, and Manetta 2019, pursues the idea that the ellipsis in such examples may involve the deletion of a VP constituent following the raising of the verb to a higher, VP-external position: “verb-stranding verb-phrase ellipsis”/VSVPE. In example 1, a light verb did is used to represent the verb phrase works for the paper; example 2 shows a much longer antecedent phrase, which in addition differs in tense from the elided one. replace. The central observation is that ellipsis is ungrammatical in tautologous conditionals; e. ) Why Ellipsis Is Important “Ellipsis” is a Latin word, but it can also be found in Greek as “elleipsis. 3. (Ellipsis of at least one of these kinds seems to be found in every language in which it has been looked for, though a systematic cross-linguistic theory of the distribution of ellipsis types remains to be formulated. Textual Ellipsis. Ellipsis is often an overlooked aspect of learning English but its effects are long-lasting. Repeated verb phrase After the same auxiliary/modal. This dissertation claims that an elliptical VP is a proform, and shows that there is a striking similarity in the antecedence possibilities for VP ellipsis and those for pronouns, which indicates that the relation governing VPEllipsis is semantic rather than syntactic. For instance: “I went to the park, but Jim did not”. In these examples of substitution, the word/phrase in blue has been replaced later by the word in red: Apr 7, 2016 · Auxiliary verbs behave in this way in English: A: Are you going to come to the beach with us? B: I could. The Original Poster can delete the verb phrase visit after the infinitival word to as it is easily recoverable from the context: You have to visit all the places, which she wants Ellipsis, a concept regularly encountered in academic writing, is an essential stylistic device that plays a significant role in written and spoken communication. Kehler (2000, Linguistics and philosophy 23(6), 533–575. ”) Substitution. ” (Here, “he” refers back to “John. In each case, an embedded question is understood though only a question word or phrase is pronounced. 1993). Examples of Ellipsis. Ellipsis. or . In linguistics, verb phrase ellipsis (VP ellipsis or VPE) is a type of elliptical construction and a type of anaphora in which a verb phrase has been left out (elided) provided that its antecedent can be found within the same linguistic context. or …) is a set of three periods or dots in a row. Verb phrase ellipsis explained. We saw that the complement can be left out but not the verb. [Do you] Want some coffee? [Have you] Got a lot of homework? Omitting auxiliary verbs . I know that: A gap will occur in the non-initial conjunct; At least elides a verb verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis) as in (2), and NP-ellipsis (or N0-ellipsis) as in (3). Jun 1, 2006 · VP ellipsis generally requires a syntactically matching antecedent. Non-finite verbs are often used incorrectly, especially when it comes to split infinitives and dangling participles. In other words, the ellipsis cannot be phrase-initial, e. 001)…” In-text Citation Ellipsis Example: “According to Smith (2019), ‘The findings suggest a strong correlation between…'” Creative Writing: Sep 30, 2022 · Examples of the word “ellipsis” in sentences. ” Ellipsis noun, and it is pronounced (ih-lip-seez). One program implements the semantic copying required to resolve VP ellipsis, demonstrating the correct set of possible readings for the examples of interest. They ought to be kind. Sep 1, 2013 · An analysis of antecedent mismatch effects under ellipsis is proposed to explain why some cases of verb phrase ellipsis exhibit a sizeable penalty when the elided target is not structurally Jan 20, 2020 · Verbal substitution is realized through an auxiliary verb (do, be, have), sometimes together with another substitute term such as so or the same. one, do, this) in order to avoid repeating the previously used word. com . Example 2: An ellipsis can often be usefully employed to save printing space in books and time for readers. Example 1: An ellipsis cannot occur without a linguistic antecedent. (The intended interpretations of the question-denoting elliptical clause are given in parentheses; parts of these are anaphoric to the boldface material in the antecedent. Substitution in English grammar is when a word, phrase, or clause in a sentence is replaced by a different word or phrase (e. Can you give an example of an ellipsis? Sure! Understanding and using the cohesive device of nominal, verbal, and clausal ellipsis in essays or reports. For example, “I can’t help but smile when I see puppies. See full list on grammarbook. Modal verbs are often used with other verbs to create phrases that convey a specific meaning. These constitute different licensing One line of analysis, initiated in Otani & Whitman 1991 and developed further in works such as Goldberg 2005, Gribanova 2013, Funakoshi 2016, and Manetta 2019, pursues the idea that the ellipsis in such examples may involve the deletion of a VP constituent following the raising of the verb to a higher, VP-external position: “verb-stranding verb-phrase ellipsis”/VSVPE. Ellipsis is correctly ruled out by a focus-based theory of ellipsis (Rooth 1992a,b), but one that crucially imports focus’s requirement for contrast: an elliptical constituent must have an antecedent that is particular, verb phrase ellipsis (VPE), as shown by the example in 1. A subordinate clause contains a subordinate conjunction in addition to a subject. In the proposed model, mismatching VPE examples are grammatical but less acceptable because they violate heuristic parsing strategies. The head verb, which is categorized as finite, can either be in the present or past tense. Dec 1, 2010 · For example, in a written questionnaire, Frazier and Clifton (2005) found that, while readers were relatively more likely to interpret the elided verb phrase with respect to the immediately-preceding phrase went to Europe within a single sentence, as in (6a), when a sentence boundary intervened as in (6b), they were more likely to interpret the Apr 23, 2016 · I have also tried to search online for relevant examples of ellipsis, but most books and articles I have found only give examples where the elided verb takes direct objects without a preposition. We did this by contrasting (a) ellipsis cued by “did” and an interpolated verb phrase including “was” and vice versa (a partial match between cue and interpolated material) with (b) ellipsis cued by “did” or “was” and an interpolated verb phrase with a matching “did” or “was,” respectively (a full match between cue and Nov 13, 2023 · Sentence with ellipsis: Going to the store to buy some milk. Common examples are after the words and and but and for reducing adverbial and relative clauses. In the example above, we have the verb be acting as a copular verb linking the subject (they) with the adjective complement (satisfied). Ellipsis means leaving out one or more words, because the meaning is clear from the context. You can read more about this type of ellipsis on the zeugma page. For example: They have been dancing for more than an hour. For example: Sometimes we can miss out both the pronoun and the auxiliary verb that goes with it. Words that make up a verb examples? Apr 1, 2008 · Rather, our results suggest that a pointer-like mechanism is used to interpret the VP ellipsis. Another Definition of Ellipsis The term "ellipsis" also refers to omitting repeated words for efficiency or effect. Despite the absence of any overt VP material, (1a) can only be Jun 17, 2024 · Categories of the Verb Phrase. lingoda. VPE can also occur with semi-auxiliaries, as in example 2. Examples of an ellipsis used in May 6, 2021 · The sources of information I read seem to pick the most 'obvious' examples, such as: Mary loves coffee, and John tea. The meaning of a phrasal verb is usually unrelated to the meanings of the words that compose it, so think of a phrasal verb as an entirely new and independent word. To fully grasp the application and importance of ellipses, it’s crucial to explore various examples and contexts in which they are employed. Note that when a noun phrase ellipsis is used, the word or words that are omitted from one clause appear in Ellipsis - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary Jul 27, 2023 · There are several types of ellipsis in linguistics, including gapping, pseudogapping, stripping, verb phrase ellipsis, and noun phrase ellipsis. ” We use ellipses to indicate omissions of words, phrases, or even whole sentences. The final important aspect is ellipsis. When a matching verb phrase was available, just not in verb phrase position, then participants judged the ellipsis examples The meaning of ELLIPSIS is the omission of one or more words that are obviously understood but that must be supplied to make a construction grammatically complete. Nov 6, 2020 · A verb phrase takes a verb one step further. She’ll go to the meeting, but I won’t (go to the meeting). The ellipsis in this sentence replaces “I am. The basic puzzle is how meaning is derived from an incomplete form. are used in English when we . , it looks like a verb phrase and it occupies a position (e. Nov 6, 2022 · Examples of ought. This program has been tested on several hundred examples of VP ellipsis, automatically collected from corpora. Each type of ellipsis serves a different purpose, but they all involve the omission of words or phrases from a sentence. *He likes papers about gapping and she likes papers about stripping. Stanford. Some authors feel it is preferable to not use the name Noun Phrase ellipsis to refer to the phenomenon as it is not the whole NP that gets deleted. In utterances with verb phrase ellipsis, the verb phrase is missing, but its meaning can be recovered from the conversational context. For example, consider Sluicing is illustrated with the following examples. We extend the few previous corpus studies with an annotated corpus of VPE in all 25 sections of the Wall Street Journal corpus (WSJ) distributed with the Penn Treebank. Nov 21, 2023 · This verb phrase is an example of a nonfinite verb phrase as it does not show the number or person of the action. Its plural is ‘ellipses’. However, although some At times, the elided material can appear medially in the noun phrase, as just illustrated here with the b- and c-examples. For example: Mark likes cakes; Lee, pies. Ellipsis of the subject complement cannot, however, occur with alternative pseudo-copular verbs so, for example, we cannot reduce: Verb phrases - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary Feb 25, 2011 · Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE) has been studied in great depth in theoretical linguistics, but empirical studies of VPE are rare. Sheila ought to be kind. The second program selects the antecedent for a VP ellipsis occurrence. In short, that’s what an ellipsis is or, at least, that’s how we write it. Currently, I am reading the Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris. Certainly, both of the subtasks of ellipsis processing – detection and resolution – can be very difficult, so it is unrealistic to expect a full-coverage, near-term solution for open text. May 1, 2021 · | Hypothetical information density profiles for example (1): The surprisal values for the words of the full form (A) and for the words of the ellipsis (B) are plotted. We extend the few previous corpus studies with an annotated corpus of VPE in all 25 sections of the Wall Street Journal corpus ( Aug 28, 2024 · Example: “John arrived late because he missed the bus. ” Full sentence: She is going to the gym to work out. verb phrases are elided based on a cor-pus of positive and negative examples. so One of the most common substitutions is to use the pro-form so to stand for the verb phrase and any modifying adverbials. ellipsis example and the rough location of its antecedent are already identified,focussingontheresolutiontask” (pp. The items left out are in brackets [ ]: I am absolutely sure [that] I have met her somewhere before. The ellipsis in this sentence replaces “She is. These words, when joined together, take on a completely different meaning than that of the original verb. 2 - Verb phrase ellipsis in a sentence is the removal of a verb phrase. Two sharply contrasting approaches to verb phrase ellipsis phenomena exist. Let’s define the two. These criteria lead to the copula be and non-copular use of be as an existential verb being considered an auxiliary (it undergoes inversion and takes postdependent not , e. She ought to go to his friend sometimes. Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE), for example, results from the nonpronunciation of a full-fledged verb phrase: Rupert likes horse races but Holly doesn’t [like horse races]. Here are examples of ellipsis points: Example 1 domain of elliptical expressions, in particular, verb phrase ellipsis (VPE), as shown by the example in 1. Example (134) shows the substitution of looks pretty good in the first clause with so does in the second one. (2)In particular, Mr. Learn more about what they are and what they look like with these helpful verb phrase examples. , above vP). Verb phrases expressing tense: Verb phrases tell us whether the action was in the past, present, or future. A verb phrase is said to be finite if there is only one verb phrase in a sentence. Sam saw three seabirds in the horizon, and Jill saw four [seabirds]. The following examples show ellipsis. Intuitively, it appears that the missing VP is identical to an antecedent VP, i. Coxon says, businesses are Oct 14, 2019 · A verb phrase ellipsis occurs in a sentence when a verb phrase (a construction made up of a verb and a direct or indirect object, such as "buys food" or "sells cars") is omitted. (1991), we refer to the full verb expres-sion as the antecedent , and to the anaphor as the target . The word ellipsis as such means omission of superfluous words from speech or writing. Because ellipsis is subject to licensing conditions which impose identity requirements—the nature of which we will discuss in some detail in Sect. For example, according to the binding theory, the In linguistics, verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis or VPE) is an elliptical construction in which a non-finite verb phrase has been left out (elided), e. II. After a different auxiliary/modal elliptical vacancy is the target of ellipsis, while the context being the ellipsis antecedent is the source of ellipsis. Noun ellipsis is also referred to as nominal ellipsis, zero noun anaphora and Noun Phrase Ellipsis (NPE) in different textbooks. " This is also known as ellipsis. substitution. The meaning of the sentence remained same. In linguistics, verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis or VPE) is an elliptical construction in which a non-finite verb phrase has been left out (elided), e. ” These words both mean “to fall short, or leave out. Mar 20, 2002 · This work is a comparative study of verb phrase ellipsis (and verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis), sluicing and gapping, along with some of their subtypes, in English and the Bantu language isiZulu. Stripping: I ordered the linguini, [I did] not [order] lobster. A related point is that N-ellipsis must be introduced by a pre-noun element in the noun phrase. Pin Modal Verbs – These verbs tell us whether something is probable or about the skills of a noun etc. A third diagnostic that can be used for identifying auxiliary verbs is verb phrase ellipsis. The next example, (135) is one of clausal substitution, where so substitutes the previous Mar 23, 2019 · Common Modal Verb Phrases. Ellipses are also used in casual communication, such as text messages, to show indecision or a thought trailing off. A split infinitive occurs when an adverb is placed between “to” and the verb in an infinitive phrase. May 15, 2023 · A phrasal verb combines a normal verb with an adverb or a preposition, referred to as the particle of the phrasal verb, to create an entirely new verbal phrase—the phrasal verb. [come to the beach with you] The Original Poster's example. Maria should take the exam, but I don’t think you should (take the exam). com Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE) is the anaphoric process where a verbal constituent is partially or totally unex-pressed, but can be resolved through an antecedent in the context, as in the following examples: (1)His wife also [antecedent works for the paper], as did his father. Verb phrase ellipsis takes place in a sentence when a whole verb phrase (a group of words made up of a verb and a direct or indirect object) is omitted. ) proposed an elegant theory which predicts a syntactic antecedent for an elided VP is required only for a May 8, 2019 · Finite and Non-Finite Verbs – These are verbs which can be either the main verb of a sentence or just one that is used as an adjective or noun as well. leave out. Test what you know about ellipsis with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you. For example: “To boldly go where no man has gone before. This is an example of a noun phrase ellipsis because 'seabirds' is omitted from the noun phrase 'four seabirds'. For example, in the sentence, The govern-ment includes money spent on residential renova-tion; Dodge does not The two types of clauses are independent and subordinate. Do you have one?” (“One” substitutes for “pen. I was eating at the restaurant and so was she. Examples on Elliptical Sentences: Apr 9, 2019 · Using Non-Finite Verbs Incorrectly. An ellipsis is a punctuation mark consisting of three periods in a row. ,. Verb phrases. . Whether we are persuaded often depends upon the extent to which the author kept these initial promises by the end of the essay. (2) But although he was terse, he didn’t frage at meg2 the way I expected him to1. , an overt VP appearing in surrounding context. This proposal is controversial largely because Russian, like He brew, is also an object drop language, which means that examples like May 26, 2021 · The extensive literature on this phenomenon has focused on systemic questions like the modeling of the ellipsis site, the relation between the ellipsis site and its antecedent (or postcedent) and the licensing conditions of VP ellipsis (see e. After a different auxiliary/modal The VP-recycling hypothesis predicts that finding an antecedent should be easier if the antecedent of the verb phrase ellipsis has the canonical properties of a verb phrase, i. Example: “I need a pen. Finally, I have read the answers to a possibly irrelevant question on this forum, as well as those to several others that seem even less relevant. Crucially for Hankamer and Sag, whether an anaphor is deep or surface is in- verb-phrase ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence against the syntactic account, Language and have effects at the ellipsis site. Textual ellipsis occurs in both speaking and writing, and is more related to specific grammar rules, with the omission of words that are in grammatically predictable sentence positions. Jun 13, 2002 · Although it was initially thought that verb phrase ellipsis did not allow for voice mismatches between antecedent and ellipsis site (Sag, 1976), work culminating in Hardt (1993) made abundantly This sentence is an example of verb phrase ellipsis as the verb phrase "play tennis" is left out of the sentence, as shown in the diagram below: Fig. (1) Don’t! Informally speaking, the elliptical expression in 1 is inherently ‘incomplete’, since the verb phrase is missing. conditions on the stranded verb in VVPE can be understood to indicate which parts of the verbal complex originate inside the ellipsis site, and which parts originate outside the ellipsis site (i. In formal writing, it is used to indicate omitted text in a quotation. The verb phrase “cook dinner” was Dickens has used three verb phrases, among which the second verb phrase is a nonfinite verb phrase using “ing,” and followed by its object “on its surface. certain words in order to avoid Examples for each type of writing: Academic Writing: Academic Ellipsis Example: “The study found that the new treatment significantly reduced symptoms (p < . Jul 25, 2012 · Abstract. Factor that affect verb phrase ellipsis in-clude: the distance between antecedent and ellipsis site, the syntactic relation between antecedent and ellipsis site, and the presence or absence of adjuncts. (This is a complex verb phrase. e. The central claim of this dissertation is that an elliptical VP is a proform. However, many documented examples exist where the antecedent is not appropriate. 1—on the elided material, probing identity requirements on the verbal Aug 7, 2023 · How to identify a verb phrase? A verb phrase is a group of words that includes a main verb and one or more auxiliary verbs. Here are some common modal verb phrases and their meanings: Can’t help but – This phrase is used to express that you cannot stop yourself from doing something. An independent clause contains a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence. Finite Verb Phrase. • e I'llusesstrikethroughwhenI needtoshowthecontentsofa deletedphrase;otherwise,I willuse toshowthe (hypothesized)positionofan elidedphrase. Ellipsis is sometimes called substitution by zero, since essentially one or more words are substituted with no word taking their place. Substitution replaces a word or phrase with another word to avoid repetition and make sentences shorter. Mar 17, 2022 · This paper argues that verb phrase ellipsis requires contrast. John was studying. Here, comprehenders must interpret the expression the bellhop did too in a manner that can be paraphrased as “the bellhop called a cab Ellipsis involves eliminating unnecessary words from phrases, making it essential for mastering the language. We annotated the raw files using a stand-off annotation scheme that codes the auxiliary verb Aug 1, 2006 · Five experiments have been presented that suggest verb phrase ellipsis without a matching antecedent in a standard verb phrase position may be relatively acceptable depending on various characteristics of the example. ” Jul 28, 2011 · This paper lays the foundations for a processing model of relative acceptability levels in verb phrase ellipsis (VPE). ” In the linguistics literature, verb phrase ellipsis has been studied extensively (see Johnson, 2001 for an overview of issues, crucial early work is found in Sag, 1976, and Williams, 1977, and important recent work in Merchant, 2001,2003a,2003b). 2002, Coherence, Reference and the Theory of Grammer, CSLI Publications. To identify a verb phrase, look for the main verb and any helping verbs that come before or after it. fnkb xax nwlgyw urw wnfzk ihf tpd hfam ydqciw awefs