Minimal Answers -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Dedication page -- Table of contents -- List of tables -- List of figures -- Preface -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- 1.1 The general topic -- 1.2 The theoretical framework -- 1.3. VP ellipsis: particular answers to general questions in acquisition research -- 1.3.1 Ellipsis as anaphora: ellipsis at the syntax and discourse interface -- 1.3.2 Syntactic constraints on VP ellipsis: acquisition of V-to-I movement -- 1.3.3 Interpretation of focus and presuppositions -- 1.4. Overview of the book -- Chapter 2. VPE and the structural and anaphoric properties of minimal answers in EP adult grammar -- 2.1 VPE in EP: a preliminary diagnosis -- 2.2 VPE and null object -- 2.3. VPE and null complement anaphora in EP -- 2.3.1 The distribution of VPE and NCA -- 2.3.2 The distributional overlap of VPE and NCA in EP: a case of structural ambiguity -- 2.3.3 On the distinction between VPE and NCA in EP: extraction and parallelism -- 2.3.4 Against strict morpho-syntactic parallelism -- 2.4. Ellipsis and deep anaphora in minimal answers -- 2.4.1 A brief overview of minimal answers to yes-no questions -- 2.4.2 Structural and anaphoric properties of minimal answers to yes-no questions -- 2.4.2.1 Verbal answers -- 2.4.2.2 Ropositional anaphora: SIM and SER -- 2.4.3 Verb reduplication and emphatic affirmation -- 2.5 Ellipsis: licensing and identification -- 2.5.1 Licensing conditions on VPE -- 2.5.2 Identification conditions: Givenness and Focus -- 2.5.2.1 Givenness and VPE -- 2.6. Conclusion -- Chapter 3. Learnability issues in VPE and focus -- 3.1. The syntax/discourse/prosody interface in the resolution of VPE and focus: problems for acquisition -- 3.2. Previous research on the acquisition of VPE -- 3.3. Previous research on the acquisition of focus -- 3.4. Research questions -- 3.5 Methodology.

3.5.1 EP corpus of spontaneous production -- 3.5.2 Experiment -- Chapter 4. How early can VPE be found? -- 4.1 Early production of verbal answers -- 4.2 Are early verbal answers mere repetition? -- 4.2.1 Some arguments against a repetition explanation -- 4.2.2 The (apparent) problem of "echo" answers -- 4.3 The structure of early verbal answers -- 4.3.1 Verbal answers as evidence for early production of VPE -- 4.3.2 Apparent) Problems for a VPE as deletion approach (or a problem for the analysis of early verbal answers as VPE) -- 4.3.2.1 A mismatch between first phonologically full and first deleted VPs -- 4.3.2.2 Non-adult knowledge of the distribution of verbal answers -- 4.3.3 Grammatical and extra-grammatical alternative accounts and a solution -- 4.3.3.1 A grammatical account: early VPE as pro -- 4.3.3.2 Extra-grammatical accounts -- 4.3.3.3 Cross-linguistic evidence -- 4.3.3.4 A solution: a processing and grammatical account -- 4.4 Other VPE structures in early production -- 4.4.1 Confirmation of preceding utterances -- 4.4.2 Emphatic affirmation as a VPE context -- 4.5. VPE is early evidence for V-to-I raising -- 4.6. The emergence of sim and SER: why are sim and SER answers later? -- 4.7 Early verbal answers in EP: synthesis of the account and consequences for the syntax -- Chapter 5. Answers as a window into the interpretation of questions -- 5.1 Children's errors concerning the distribution of verbal answers -- 5.2 The experimental setting -- 5.3 Truth value results: two major response patterns -- 5.4 Pattern 1 - The default focus reading -- 5.4.1 The NSR and the default focus reading -- 5.4.2 Why don't other explanations account for the data? -- 5.4.2.1 The Semantic Subset Principle -- 5.4.2.2 Reference Set Computation -- 5.5 Pattern 2 -- 5.5.1 Children's problems interpreting presuppositions -- 5.5.2 Patterson et al.'s explanation.

5.6 The co-existence of "default focus" and "presupposition difficulty" -- 5.7 Type of answer results -- 5.8 Additional evidence: a small follow-up study -- 5.9 Back to the spontaneous production data -- 5.9.1 Spontaneous production of só -- 5.9.2 Spontaneous production and an adverb analysis of só -- 5.9.3 Spontaneous production of clefts -- 5.10 Summary and concluding remarks -- Chapter 6. Conclusions -- 6.1 Summary of main results -- 6.2 Questions for future research -- 6.2.1 Crosslinguistic comparisons -- 6.2.2 Comprehension of VPE -- 6.2.3 Production/comprehension of other types of silent anaphora (e.g., Stripping, Pseudo-stripping, Sluicing) -- 6.2.4 Interpretation of só 'only' in sentences with marked word-orders -- 6.2.5 Adverbial answers in EP adult syntax and in first stages of acquisition -- 6.2.6 Argument drop in EP adult syntax -- References -- Subject index -- The series Language Acquisition and Language Disorders.