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The Syntax of Auxiliary Reduction in English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Ellen M. Kaisse
Ellen M. Kaisse*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Abstract

The reduced forms of the auxiliaries is and has are excluded from many more constructions than have previously been noted. This article extends the range of ungrammatical reductions for which any theory of Auxiliary Reduction must account, and argues that many of them are already predicted under a liberal reading of earlier constraints on the context following the AUX. However, it is shown that the preceding context must also have a particular form. Auxiliary Reduction is a cliticization, and imposes a categorial restriction on the host which precedes the clitic: it must be an NP.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , March 1983, pp. 93 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by Linguistic Society of America

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