Relative Deletion

Abstract

Hindi-Urdu exhibits a lesser-known form of ellipsis known as Relative Deletion (RD) (Mishra 2024; van Craenenbroeck & Lipt´ak 2006), where verbal and phrasal material in relative clauses is elided, leaving only the relative phrase and one or more remnants. This study presents an in-depth analysis of RD, examining its behavior across various syntactic structures, including equatives and temporal/locative relative clauses. We examine the influence of case-marking on, and location of, the relative pronoun on the well-formedness of RD. The study compares RD with sluicing and gapping, highlighting their locality profiles and constraints. Notably, RD requires the antecedent to originate within the clause to which the relative clause is attached, a feature that parallels restrictions found in English gapping (Johnson 2009) and not sluicing (Ross 1969). In addition, we explore apparent instances of non-local RD, where deletion seems to cross clause boundaries, posing a syntactic puzzle that raises further questions about the mechanisms of ellipsis in Hindi-Urdu.