Gaps That Do Not Sprout

This squib investigates a prohibition on sprouted remnants in cases of verbal Gapping with an implicit argument in the antecedent. We explore both ellipsis derivations and Across-The-Board-movement derivations for the Gapping structure to determine the underlying cause of this restriction. We find that the ellipsis derivations of verbal Gapping do not block the presence of a sprouted remnant or predict differences in the acceptability of sprouted remnants in verbal Gapping and Pseudogapping. On the other hand, we show that the restriction against sprouting in verbal Gapping constructions is captured as a consequence of issues faced in trace-binding in Across-The-Board-movement.