The Syntax of Sluicing in Likpakpaanl

This paper investigates sluicing in Likpakpaanl, a Mabia (Gur) language of Northern Ghana, within the framework of Merchant’s (2001) E-feature analysis. I argue that the ellipsis is licensed not by C⁰, but by a higher Licensing Phrase (LP) whose E-feature deletes its FocP complement after the wh-phrase moves through Spec-FocP to Spec-LP. Unlike in overt wh-questions where the focus particle is optional, it obligatorily disappears under sluicing, supporting Merchant’s Sluice-COMP Generalization but challenging Baltin’s (2010) claim about focus survival under ellipsis. Evidence from island effects further indicates that sluicing repairs PF-defective structures through deletion, consistent with cross-linguistic findings (Merchant 2001; Mendes & Kandybowicz 2023). The analysis advances our understanding of how focus marking interacts with ellipsis and extends the empirical reach of the E-feature framework to Mabia syntax and West African languages.