Grammar terminology: gap? ellipsis?

[jal]

I was wondering what the term is for what seems like a gap or ellipsis in sentences where the head of the subclause is the elided object in the subclause:

I saw the man I hurt [him]
It's that girl I talked about [her]

I seem to recall there's a specific term, but I can't find it.


JAL

[Vardelm]

AFAICT it's "gapping", per the Wikipedia article on relative clauses.

[jal]

AFAICT it's "gapping", per the Wikipedia article on relative clauses.

Mmm, I checked that article but only looked at the English, not the formation paragraph. However, I also read the "gapping" article, and what's described there doesn't seem to match what the relative clause article describes ("Gapping usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present."). I'm confused...


JAL

[zompist]

Chomskyans call it a trace (or t).

Gapping is different; it's the transformation that produces sentences like "Sam liked to hunt pheasant, and Bill, grouse."

[Vardelm]

I was replying and the board ate my post. Grrr....

Chomskyans call it a trace (or t).

Gapping is different; it's the transformation that produces sentences like "Sam liked to hunt pheasant, and Bill, grouse."

I was going to say that yeah, what jal was seeing on the gapping article was referring to omitting a shared verb, rather than a shared noun/pronoun. Yeah, they're technically different, but they're using the same method (removing one instance of a shared sentence constituent) to achieve their ends. I see the term "gapping", or rather a "gapping strategy" or "gap strategy", used to describe the phenomena in relative clauses. (For example, https://wals.info/chapter/123)

I guess based on that I would still call it a "gap". Just don't ask for my academic or professional linguistic qualifications to back that up.

[zompist]

"Gap" has WALS backing it up at least. But I'd put this into the category of "things you're going to have to explain anyway in the grammar", rather than a term everybody knows.

[jal]

Thanks y'all! Think I'm going with "gap" then.


JAL