Abstract
This study argues for the thesis that in sentences of the form...either...or..., either overtly marks the left edge of the disjunction whose coordinator is or. This thesis is defended against Larson's (1985) proposal that either may be distant from its disjunction as the result of syntactic movement. It is argued that examples which appear to motivate such a movement are to be reanalyzed as involving silent material at the left periphery of a second disjunct. It is shown in detail that a variety of observations on either/or disjunctions fall out from independently established properties of what Ross (1970) calls GAPPING. It will also be concluded that in certain cases, second disjuncts host silent subject pronouns. The results reached here are of relevance for future investigations in the syntax of coordinations and the scope of disjunctions.
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Schwarz, B. On the Syntax of either...or. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 17, 339–370 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006046306942
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006046306942