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Afterthoughts

Abstract Afterthought parentheticals add information to some constituent of their host, either making a vague constituent more specific (1a), filling in an implicit argument (1b), adding a modifier (1c), or correcting a constituent (1d). (1) a. Someone ate the pizza—I think Joe. b. Joe is eating—pizza probably. c. Sandy was sleeping—in the bathtub no less. d. Joe—no, Chris—ate the pizza. Afterthought parentheticals are strongly parallel to Bare Argument Ellipsis constructions like (2). (2) A: Someone ate the pizza. B: Yeah, I think Joe. B’s response in (2) bears only a discourse relation to A’s utterance. The parallelism between (1) and (2) argues that the relation between afterthoughts and their hosts is also a matter for discourse. This conclusion reinforces the Asyntactic Hypothesis: parentheticals are constituents of the prosody and discourse structure of their hosts, but they are not connected in syntax. This conclusion is formalized in the terms of the Parallel Architecture, making use of the domain-general relation same-except.

Oxford University PressOxford

Ray Jackendoff

Parenthetical Constructions in the Parallel Architecture

2025

Title: Afterthoughts

Description:

(1) a.

Someone ate the pizza—I think Joe.

Joe is eating—pizza probably.

Sandy was sleeping—in the bathtub no less.

Joe—no, Chris—ate the pizza.

Afterthought parentheticals are strongly parallel to Bare Argument Ellipsis constructions like (2).

(2) A: Someone ate the pizza.

B: Yeah, I think Joe.

B’s response in (2) bears only a discourse relation to A’s utterance.

The parallelism between (1) and (2) argues that the relation between afterthoughts and their hosts is also a matter for discourse.

This conclusion reinforces the Asyntactic Hypothesis: parentheticals are constituents of the prosody and discourse structure of their hosts, but they are not connected in syntax.

This conclusion is formalized in the terms of the Parallel Architecture, making use of the domain-general relation same-except.

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Afterthoughts

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