The VP ellipsis mysiery: a closer look at the restrictions on the distribution of VP ellipsis across languages.

VP ellipsis (VPE) has a very restricted cross-linguistic distribution: it occurs in English, but several related languages, such as Dutch, German or French do not allow it. This has not received a satisfactory explanation in the generative literature, and by comparing languages with and without VPE, this research project seeks to answer the question of the distribution of VPE.