You Heard the New Theory?: A Syntactic Analysis of Null Subjects and Null Auxiliaries in English

The following investigation of null subjects and null auxiliaries in English has two principle goals. First, it seeks to describe the occurrence of null subjects and null auxiliaries in English sentences. Second, it proposes a set of rules which attempt to account for the appearance of sentences which lack overt subjects or auxiliary verbs in English. This analysis focuses on the syntactic conditions which license these deletion processes, noting that these elements can only under go deletion only if they have also undergone movement to the left periphery. However, syntactic considerations alone cannot fully account for the distribution of null subjects and null auxiliaries. Semantic considerations (including information structure) and phonological considerations frequently play significant roles as well. This account of syntactically driven deletion via movement to the left periphery is, in many ways, similar to the account of VP ellipsis put forth by Johnson (2001). The analysis developed here accounts for the vast majority of the English data. Furthermore, it lays down clear predictions for the availability of null subjects and null auxiliaries outside of English, both in languages which are typologically similar and in those which are quite different

Nanosyntax: the basics

This chapter offers a thorough introduction to nanosyntactic theory, a development of the cartographic program in generative grammar. It discusses the foundations on which nanosyntax was conceived, such as the “one feature–one head” maxim and the universal functional sequence (fseq). It also provides a brief comparison of theoretical and terminological issues in nanosyntax vs. the competing framework of Distributed Morphology. It is seen that the syntactic component according to nanosyntax unifies aspects of (what are traditionally called) syntax, morphology, and formal semantics. This is reflected in the tools used to probe linguistic structure in the nanosyntactic approach, such as morphological decomposition, syncretism, and containment. The chapter also discusses the technical details of the syntax–lexicon relation, detailing the matching or spellout process and Starke’s view of spellout-driven movement. This chapter is meant to provide readers with the necessary background to understand and navigate the rest of the chapters in this volume

Effects of speech signal type and attention on acceptable noise level in elderly, hearing-impaired listeners

The primary objective of this study was to determine if acceptable noise levels (ANLs) in elderly, hearing-impaired listeners were dependent on speech intelligibility and listener attention levels. Acceptable noise levels (ANLs), expressed in decibels, is defined as the maximum background noise level that is acceptable while listening to and following a story. Connected speech test (CST) sentences were recorded with clear speech, conversational speech and temporally altered, fast-rate speech. Thirty-five, elderly, hearing-impaired individuals (61-97 years, M=75) with symmetrical, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss participated. Most comfortable listening levels (MCL) and background noise level (BNL) measurements were completed for each speech stimulus under conditions of attention and non-attention. ANLs were calculated and results were compared to a previous, similar study with younger, normal-hearing individuals. A significant main effect of stimulus type was found suggesting that ANL is dependent on the intelligibility of the target speech signal. Although a significant main effect of attention was not reached, a significant interaction between attention and stimulus type was found showing the condition of attention to produce lower mean ANLs for clear speech and higher ANLs for fast-rate speech. In comparison to the younger, normal-hearing group, the participants in this study had higher ANLs, overall. These findings are contradictory to previous findings. Knowledge of these results may guide clinical audiologists in counseling patients and family members on communication strategies

Information structure and the referential status of linguistic expression : workshop as part of the 23th annual meetings of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft in Leipzig, Leipzig, February 28 - March 2, 2001

This volume comprises papers that were given at the workshop Information Structure and the Referential Status of Linguistic Expressions, which we organized during the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS) Conference in Leipzig in February 2001. At this workshop we discussed the connection between information structure and the referential interpretation of linguistic expressions, a topic mostly neglected in current linguistics research. One common aim of the papers is to find out to what extent the focus-background as well as the topic-comment structuring determine the referential interpretation of simple arguments like definite and indefinite NPs on the one hand and sentences on the other