Does ellipsis repair Head Movement constraint violations?

Abstract

Using English data, I show that Head Movement Constraint violations cannot be repaired by deletion and compare this result with cases of salvation and non-salvation by ellipsis from previous literature. I then consider two possible sources for this lack of repair. The first is to take the Head Movement Constraint as a derivational constraint, and the second is to assimilate it into the Empty Category Principle (Chomsky 1986).