<![CDATA[This article analyzes the phenomenon of gapping as a distinct type of ellipsis within the framework of the actual division of the sentence (theme–rheme structure). Gapping is the omission of a repeated verb in the subsequent conjunct of a coordinate construction, while the remaining arguments are retained (e.g., John bought an apple, while Mary — an orange). The article examines the interaction between gapping and word order in English and Russian. The main conclusion of the study is that gapping is not purely a syntactic phenomenon but is determined by information structure: the omitted verb is recovered from the context, while the remaining elements, functioning as contrastive foci, occupy the rheme position. In English, gapping requires strict parallelism between the two conjuncts, whereas in Russian, due to its relatively free word order, it provides greater flexibility in expressing contrastive focus.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
