Sameness, Ellipsis and Anaphor

Abstract

We compare explicit assertions of sameness with analogous elliptical and anaphoric expressions, and find striking differences in their interpretation. We account for those differences with a two part proposal: first, we propose that same is additive, similar to too. Second, same must take scope over a containing event-denoting expression. We give evidence that the scope-taking of same is subject to standard island constraints, and we also show that same always compares two event-denoting clauses that differ in a relevant property.