Right Node Raising

Right Node Raising is the term used by linguists to refer to a construction in which a shared argument surfaces at the right periphery of a coordinate structure (e.g. Phil loves, but Mary hates, Greek tragedies). This paper begins by introducing some of the basic properties of this construction, and then moves on to present and compare two of the main approaches to analyzing this construction. One of these approaches states the shared argument is external to the coordinate structure, while the other approach states the shared argument is internal to the coordinate structure. The possibility is raised that both of these approaches may be required for a complete analysis of Right Node Raising, as pre-figured in recent work by Barros & Vicente (2011). While most scholarly work on Right Node Raising has focussed on English, the construction is attested cross-linguistically. Some of the discoveries about Right Node Raising in languages other than English will be discussed here as well.