Right Node Raising: Evidence from ‘Rule Interaction’

In general, the characteristics of RNR are as follows: when identical elements (e.g. constituents) would appear rightmost in every conjunct of a conjoined sentence, the first occurrence(s) are absent. There are two main derivations proposed for RNR structures. First, RNR may be an instance of acrossthe-board (ATB) rightward movement: both copies of the target leave their conjuncts and are rightadjoined higher in the structure. Second, there are several in-situ approaches: ellipsis or deletion, and multiple dominance. In an ellipsis account, the first copy of the target is deleted under identity with the second copy of the target, which remains in-situ in the second conjunct. In a multiple dominance account, which we will not consider here, there is only one copy of the target, which is dominated by a mother in each conjunct. This paper attempts to distinguish between ellipsis and movement accounts of RNR, based on their respective explanatory power for particular types of data. Specifically, it focuses on what the title calls ‘rule interactions,’ that is, sentences (both grammatical and not) in which RNR co-occurs with another syntactic operation, such as pseudogapping or VP topicalization. When necessary, we will take a recent deletion account of RNR (Hartmann 2000) and a recent ATB movement account (Sabbagh 2007) as representative of these two camps. For reasons of space, this paper will not delve into the details of the derivations proposed in each of those works, but rather on the resulting structural characteristics, which are largely consistent across various similar explanations. The interested reader is directed to Turon (2007), which provides this fuller, more detailed argument.