Two ways to form a portmanteau: Evidence from ellipsis

Abstract

Bengali negation forms a portmanteau in two cases: with present tense existential copulas and with all perfects. However, ellipsis of the complement of negation treats these two portmanteaux differently. While the negative perfect can be separated by ellipsis into sentential negation and a silenced perfect, the negative present existential cannot be likewise split, even though ellipsis of copulas is generally permitted. This project proposes the existence of two different ways to form portmanteaux and shows that ellipsis deletion is derivationally timed differently with respect to each in order to capture the patterns of elliptical divisibility.