In this squib, I discuss an ellipsis puzzle raised by Barros (2012), involving else-modification in sluicing contexts. On the basis of empirical evidence from Spanish, I conclude that an island repair approach to this puzzle is superior to at least two alternative analyses.
Barros (2012) shows that a nonisomorphic strategy should be available to resolve some elliptical sluicing examples involving else-modification in English.
If the elliptical gap in (1) had an underlying structure containing something similar to (1a), then we would expect a semantic clash, given that Jack likes Sally in the antecedent counts as a partial answer to the question I do not know who he likes. Assuming that being in a not-knowing situation with respect to a question Q implies not having any partial answer to Q, (1a) is derived as a kind of semantic inconsistency (Romero 1998...