Spanish modal ellipsis is not null complement anaphora

Abstract

Modal verbs are well-known to license ellipsis of their complements under certain conditions. In the literature on Spanish, such sequences, which I refer to as Modal Ellipsis (ME), have been traditionally argued to involve a null pronoun. These analyses therefore treat ME simply as an instance of Null Complement Anaphora (NCA). In this article, I scrutinize the data adduced in the literature on Spanish and defend that (i) ME in this language is different from NCA, and (ii) that ME must involve PF-deletion of a TP node. Even though these claims are not new, I provide novel data in an attempt to clarify some of the controversial facts and claims that exist in the Spanish literature. In doing so, I strengthen the recent view of ME as a PF-deletion phenomenon.

Ellipsis in Spanish

“…the apples them brought Juan, but the pears not could <bring-them Juan the pears> Thus, we conclude that modal verbs license VP-ellipsis, and not null complement anaphora (see also Fernández-Sánchez 2023 for the same conclusion).…”