Pragmatics or Syntax: The Nature of Adjunct-Inclusive Interpretations

This paper investigates the nature of adjunct-inclusive interpretations in Japanese, which has long been debated in the literature. Previous studies have disagreed on whether these interpretations arise from V-stranding VP-ellipsis or adjunct ellipsis. This study argues that adjunct-inclusive interpretations fall into two distinct types: one semantically encoded and structurally represented, and another pragmatically inferred, depending on context beyond sentence structure. Using anaphoric expressions and negation as diagnostics, this study shows that adjunct-inclusive interpretations involving (i) omission of both adjunct and object in transitive sentences and (ii) adjunct omission in intransitive sentences are syntactically represented, supporting the existence of V-stranding VP-ellipsis. By contrast, adjunct-inclusive interpretations where only the adjunct is omitted and the object is contrastively focused are derived from pragmatic inference via free pragmatic enrichment, rather than from syntactic structure. These findings provide empirical and theoretical support for the view that Japanese does not allow syntactic adjunct ellipsis but does allow V-stranding VP-ellipsis. More broadly, this study contributes to the understanding of the syntax–pragmatics interface in ellipsis, showing that not all implicit interpretations reflect syntactic structure and highlighting the importance of carefully distinguishing between semantic and pragmatic sources in analyzing ellipsis phenomena.