sloppy identity

In GRAMMAR and SEMANTICS, a type of relationship between the deleted element in an ELLIPTICAL construction and its ANTECEDENT, where the REFERENCE of the elements is not exactly the same. For example in Mary likes her sister and so does Jane, a possible interpretation would be that ‘Jane likes her own sister’. If the referent of the deleted element is exactly the same as the antecedent (i.e. in this example, ‘Jane also likes Mary’s sister’), there is said to be strict identity.