Do so anaphora and the (non)evidence for internal VP structure

Michael Houser
UC Berkeley

Since Lakoff and Ross (1976; L&R), do so anaphora has been used as evidence for internal hierarchical structure within the verb phrase. Recently, however, Culicover and Jackendoff (2005; C&J) have called into question this evidence, using do so anaphora to argue that verb phrases actually have flat structure. L&R and C&J both work under the (tacit) assumption that do so anaphora is surface anaphora (in the terms of Hankamer and Sag 1976). In this talk, I argue that do so anaphora is in fact *deep* anaphora, and as such, it has no bearing on the internal constituent structure of the VP.