On the Nature of the Gap in the Gapped RDC

Abstract

This paper investigates the nature of the gap in the gapped RDC. In the literature, the gapped RDC has been examined without considering the context in detail. The paper shows that in-depth considerations of context provide new perspectives on the nature of the gap and on the issue of how the gapped RDC is derived. We argue that the gap exhibits certain variability contingent on the relevant context. It may involve pro, argument ellipsis, or both, and their distributions are restricted by the context. We show that the variability can best be captured by the (bi-clausal) ellipsis approach to the gapped RDC. As implications, we also explore the possibility that the gap can be construed as what we call default indefinites in positive context or default NPIs in negative context.