[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/bos-1994-presupposition-vp-ellipsis/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [docs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/) / [papers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/en/) / Presupposition & VP-Ellipsis # Presupposition & VP-Ellipsis **Authors:** [Johan Bos](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/johan-bos/) · **Year:** 1994 · **Venue:** COLING 1994, Volume 2: The 15th International Conference on Computational Linguistics **Link:** [aclanthology.org/C94-2193](https://aclanthology.org/C94-2193/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) (ACL Anthology, before 2016) — summary only [**3** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W1994112321) openalex · 2026-10-19[**1** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/bos-1994-presupposition-vp-ellipsis/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[COLING 1994 Volume 2: The 15th International Conference on Computational Linguistics](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/C94-2/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/C94-2193/) - [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/C94-2193.pdf) - [DOI 10.3115/991250.991344](https://doi.org/10.3115/991250.991344) - [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W1994112321) **Authors (1)** 1. [Bos, Johan](https://openalex.org/A5002288369) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9079-5438) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/3461596) · h 36 · 4636 citations · 187 works Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-19); authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about VP-ellipsis ("John kicked his dog, and Tom did, too") has a strict reading (Tom kicked John's dog) and a sloppy one (Tom kicked Tom's dog). The paper resolves ellipsis at the level of discourse representation, in an extension of DRT. The elided VP is rebuilt by C-abstraction, and the additive particle "too" contributes a presupposition that must be linked to an antecedent. Van der Sandt's binding-or-accommodation algorithm then decides which reading survives: only readings whose presupposition can be bound without contradiction are kept. The particle is what restricts the ellipsis, not an ad hoc copying rule. The paper gives five readings for "John revised his paper before the teacher did, and Bill did, too", and it argues that the approach needs no separate constraints for multiple parallel elements. There are no experiments. ## Ideas - I1. `prag/src/frames.rs` plus `coref/src/sieve.rs`: enumerate the candidate antecedent VPs for an elided clause, and keep a candidate only if the presupposition of the particle ("too", "also", "either") can be linked to an entity already in the world. Return each surviving reading with its link. - I2. Count-based test: the number of surviving readings for a set of sentences with two parallel elements, and whether it matches the paper's five-reading example. Add a control with no particle, which must give no reading. - I3. Keep the list of additive and focusing particles in the lexicon as a closed BTreeSet, with the presupposition each contributes, so that the trigger list is explicit and checkable. ## For Mova The chapter is [29. Ellipsis, word order and information structure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/29-ellipsis-word-order-information-structure/) (ellipsis) and [36. Discourse relations and coherence](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/36-discourse-relations/). The code is `prag/src/frames.rs` and `coref/src/sieve.rs`. Measure: reading counts on a list of written ellipsis sentences with particles, plus the no-particle control; run twice. The paper has no corpus numbers, so all measures are new. ## Cite The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.3115/991250.991344](https://doi.org/10.3115/991250.991344) ``` @inproceedings{bos1994presupposition, title = {{Presupposition \& VP-Ellipsis}}, author = {Bos, Johan}, booktitle = {COLING 1994 Volume 2: The 15th International Conference on Computational Linguistics}, year = {1994}, doi = {10.3115/991250.991344}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3115/991250.991344} } ``` - [← previous What brings a higher-order entity into focus of attention? Sentential pronouns in English and Norwegian.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/borthen-1997-what-brings-higher-order-entity/) - [next → Recognising Textual Entailment with Logical Inference](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/bos-2005-recognising-textual-entailment-logical-inference/) - [↑ back to English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/en/) ## References 17 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Rainer B~uerle. 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