Response particles and verbal identity

Abstract

Abstract This paper revisits the Verbal Identity Requirement on V-stranding ellipsis in Hungarian, and argues that verb movement out of an ellipsis site does not require the verb to be lexically identical to its antecedent in contexts where emphasis is on the polarity. By showing that lexical identity need not be satisfied in case V-stranding is accompanied by a response particle, we argue that whenever the response particle is missing the preference for identity is not triggered by ellipsis in this language, but is due to a pragmatic inference.