We present a new method for characterizing the interpretive possibilities generated by elliptical constructions in natural language. Unlike previous analyses, which postulate ambiguity of interpretation or derivation in the full clause source of the ellipsis, our analysis requires no such hidden ambiguity. Further, the analysis follows relatively directly from an abstract statement of the ellipsis interpretation problem. It predicts correctly a wide range of interactions between ellipsis and other semantic phenomena such as quantifier scope and bound anaphora. Finally, although the analysis itself is stated nonprocedurally, it admits of a direct computational method for generating interpretations. This article is available through the Computation and Language E-Print Archive as cmp-lg/9503008, and also appears in Linguistics and Philosophy 14(4):399–452. cmp-lg/9503008 Ellipsis and Higher-Order Unification 1

It has, at times, been claimed in the literature on Romance causatives that Faire-par embeds not a verbal infinitive but rather, a gerundive, verbal noun (for example by Guasti, 1990; Travis, 1992;

This paper investigates the status of Across-the-Board (ATB) movement in Logical Form (LF). It is argued that, although both overt and covert wh-movement are subject to the Coordinate Structure Constraint (CSC), only overt ATB movement can save possible CSC violations. This observation implies that there is no LF ATB movement at all. Such a conclusion is further supported by facts of Quantifier Raising and scope, as well as head movement. The paper then examines various approaches to the ATB construction, including path theoretic, three dimensional, deletion, and null operator accounts, and argues that the latter is able to capture the lack of LF ATB dependencies in a more principled way than the alternatives. The paper also provides evidence for the existence of QR and LF wh-movement in English and examines the status of VP-coordination. It is argued that VP-level coordination is not possible in nonperiphrastic constructions.