1999ApJ...513L..25R

We present stellar kinematics along the principal axes of seven elliptical galaxies less luminous than M_B=-19.5, which extend beyond the half-light radii for all systems in this photometrically selected sample. At large radii, the kinematics not only confirm that rotation and ``diskiness'' are important in faint elliptical galaxies, as was previously known, but show that rotation dominates: the stars at large galactocentric distances have (V/σ)_max∼2, similar to the disks in bona fide S0 galaxies. A comparison with published simulations of dissipationless mergers is not straightforward. Yet, within R_e, the observed galaxies seem to rotate somewhat faster than 3:1 merger remnants, arguing against major mergers as the dominant mechanism in the final shaping of low-luminosity elliptical galaxies and favoring instead the dissipative formation of a disk.