Ellipsis and multimodal categorial type logic

In this paper, I show that multimodal categorial type logic provides us with a system of linguistic inference which is fine-grained enough to give an adequate account of the forms of ellipsis that show up in coordinate constructions and comparatives. I present a unified account of Gapping in coordinate constructions and Subdeletion in clausal comparatives, improving on earlier work of Morrill (1994) and Moortgat (1991). In multimodal categorial type logic, a number of unimodal logics (Lambek systems) are combined into one system (cf. Moortgat 1994; Moortgat & Oehrle 1994; Morrill 1994). Thus, families of type constructors with different resource management properties live together. Because the individual resource management properties of the constituting unimodal logics are preserved, but at the same time the component logics interact with each other, the result is a system with an inferential capacity which is greater than the sum of its component parts. As is shown in this paper, this multimodal system of grammatical inference is capable of dealing with the subtleties involved in the analysis of elliptical constructions.