Sluicing

In syntax, sluicing is a type of ellipsis that occurs in both direct and indirect interrogative clauses. The ellipsis is introduced by a wh-expression, whereby in most cases, everything except the wh-expression is elided from the clause. Sluicing has been studied in detail in the early 21st century and it is therefore a relatively well-understood type of ellipsis. Sluicing occurs in many languages. Sluicing is illustrated with the following examples. In each case, an embedded question is understood though only a question word or phrase is pronounced. (The intended interpretations of the question-denoting elliptical clause are given in parentheses; parts of these are anaphoric to the boldface material in the antecedent.) Phoebe ate something, but she doesn't know what. (=what she ate) Jon doesn't like the lentils, but he doesn't know why. (=why he doesn't like the lentils) Someone has eaten the soup. Unfortunately, I don't know who. (=who has eaten the soup) Sluicing in these examples occurs in indirect questions. It is also frequent in direct questions across speakers, e.g. Somebody is coming for dinner tonight. - Who? (=Who is coming for dinner tonight)? They put something in the mailbox. - What? (=What did they put in the mailbox)? The examples of sluicing above have the sluiced material following its antecedent. This material can also precede its antecedent, e.g. I don't know why, but the pictures have been moved. (=why the pictures have been moved) When and how is unclear, but somebody should say something. (=when and how somebody should say something) Jason Merchant (2001) states that these and other examples of sluicing can be organized into four categories of sluicing constructions. These types include sluices with adjunct wh-phrases, sluices with overt correlates, sluices with implicit arguments and contrast sluices. The first type refers to when the wh-phrase does not have an elided copy of the antecedent but is an adjunct. The following example from Ali Algryani (2019) shows this: Zayd rāḥ, lakǝn ma-adri mita /wein.