This paper discusses Johnson’s (2001)[6] claim that VP-fronting and VP-ellipsis exhibit similar syntactic licensing conditions — or rather, VP-fronting feeds VP-ellipsis; in order for a VP to be deleted, it firstly undergoes VP-fronting. In light of this, this paper nevertheless observes that the legitimization of VP-fronting does not necessarily entail that of VP-ellipsis; in other words, there are some cases where VP-fronting is licensed but VP-ellipsis seems to be disallowed. As such, the paper tentatively argues that VP-fronting does not necessarily feed VP-ellipsis. In addition, this study tries to explain why in some cases VP-fronting is legitimized while VP-ellipsis is not. For this purpose, by invoking English counterexamples, this paper bases its theoretical apparatus on the notion of WCO (Weak Crossover). The observed non-parallelism between VP-fronting and VP-ellipsis can be attributed to the intervention of WCO effects in the syntactic construction with VP-ellipsis.

Jing Peng. Investigation of WCO intervention in VP-fronting feeding VP-ellipsis. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2026), Vol. 9, Issue 6: 11-15. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2026.090602.

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