Verb phrase ellipsis in Likpakpaanl

This paper discusses verb phrase ellipsis in Likpakpaanl, a Mabia (Gur) language
belonging to the Niger-Congo family and predominantly spoken in the Eastern
part of the Northern Region and the Oti Region of Ghana. I argue that VP
 ellipsis is licensed by the modals ŋmàn and bàn, which project separate modal phrases
(ModP) in the clausal structure. The data drawn from the Licahbol dialect show
that only the higher ModP position occupied by ŋmàn and bàn hosts the
ellipsis [E]-feature which licenses VP ellipsis by deleting the phonological content of
their complements. I show that even though both modals license VP ellipsis, bàn
targets an entire CP for deletion, while ŋmàn deletes the VP and its internal
arguments. Finally, I adduce evidence from Antecedent Contained Deletion (ACD) and
Reconstruction effects and propose a base-generation analysis to account for the
presence of the resumptive pronoun in the distribution of bàn, and also assume a
PF-deletion approach for Likpakpaanl VP ellipsis.