Against restructuring in modern French

Cinque (2002) examines those transparency effects that have been claimed to point to the existence of restructuring in French and concludes that quantifier and adverb climbing depend not on restructuring but, rather, on an irrealis context. In this paper, we show that restructuring does not play an active role in explaining the existence of en `of-it\u27 and y `there\u27 climbing or long movement in `easy-to-please\u27 constructions either, which leads to the conclusion that Modern French has no transparency effects of the restructuring kind. We then present three arguments against Cinque\u27s (2004) thesis that verbs of the restructuring class are universally functional verbs that appear with infinitives in a monoclausal configuration. Instead, we adopt the Cinque (2001)/Cardinaletti & Shlonsky (2004) approach according to which restructuring verbs can be merged either as lexical or functional verbs. We argue that this approach should be parametrized to yield three options that account for cross-linguistic/dialectal variation associated with restructuring

French Tough-Movement Infinitives as Deverbal Nominals

In this paper, we argue that predicates of the tough-class in French embed not a verbal infinitive but rather, a gerundive verbal noun. This hypothesis allows us to capture a number of unexpected restrictions on French tough-movement discussed by Legendre (1986). We show that these restrictions are best described as the inability of French tough-movement infinitives to be followed by complements that are disallowed in their corresponding argument-taking event nominals. Our analysis of such infinitives as nominalized elements correctly predicts that they should never be selected by auxiliaries, and that they should have suppressed external arguments in the sense of Grimshaw (1990)

Identifying Phonologically Overt Counterparts to Silent Elements: The Case of French Exceptives

A relatively recent development in the generative framework is the hypothesis that there exist in syntax silent elements (SEs) that have a semantic content that is recovered by accessing their phonologically overt counterparts (cf. Kayne 2005, 2012 and Her and Tsai 2015, among others). In this paper, we provide a careful assessment of the two SEs that have been argued by O’Neill (2011) and Homer (2015) to be present in the French (ne)…que exceptive construction; namely silent rien ‘nothing’ and silent autre ‘other’. In doing so, we take to heart one of the main points made by Her and Tsai (2015) in relation to their criticism of Kayne (2012); namely, that for a proposed SE to be learnable, there cannot be any deviation in meaning from its overt counterpart. That is, the recoverability constraint assumed in the generative framework to be at work in, say, PF-deletion ellipsis, applies to all phonologically silent categories, including SEs. Additionally, as Her and Tsai argue, if semantic deviance between SEs and their phonologically overt counterparts were allowed, SEs would become ‘empirically intractable’. We argue that while positing a silent n-word in (ne)…que is faithful to the recoverability constraint on silent categories, the alleged second SE, namely, silent autre ‘other’, is not semantically equivalent to its phonologically overt counterpart in several respects. As we demonstrate, however, if one assumes instead that its overt counterpart is plus ‘more’, the recoverability requirement is restored

Tricuspid valve disease with significant tricuspid insufficiency in the fetus: Diagnosis and outcome

AbstractThe echocardiographic studies and clinical course of 27 fetuses (mean gestationl age 26.9 weeks) diagnosed in utero with tricuspid valve disease and significant tricuspid regurgitation were reviewed. The diagnosis of Ebstein's anomaly was made in 17 of the fetuses, 7 had tricuspid valve dysplasia with poorly developed but normally attached leaflets and 2 had an unguarded tricuspid valve orifice with little or no identifiable tricuspid tissue. One fetus was excluded from data analysis because a more complex heart lesion was documented at autopsy. All fetuses had massive right atrial dilation and most who were serially studied had progressive right-sided cardiomegaly. Hydrops fetalis was found in six cases and atrial flutter in five.Associated cardiac lesions included pulmonary stenosis in five cases and pulmonary alresia in six. Four fetuses with normal forward pulmonary artery flow at the initial examination were found at subsequent study to have retrograde pulmonary artery and ductal flow in association with the development of pulmonary stenosis (n = 1) and pulmonary atresia (n = 3). On review of the clinical course of the 23 fetuses (excluding 3 with elective abortion), 48% of the fetuses died in utero and 35% who were liveborn died despite vigorous medical and, when necessary, surgical management, many of whom had severe congestive heart failure. Of the four infants who survived the neonatal period, three had a benign neonatal course, all of whom were diagnosed with mild to moderate Ebstein's anomaly; only one had pulmonary outflow obstruction. An additional finding at autopsy was significant lung hypoplasia documented in 10 of 19 autopsy reports.Tricuspid valve anomalies with tricuspid insufficiency can be identified echocardiographically in the fetus and should be searched for in the presence of right atrial enlargement. The prognosis for the fetus diagnosed in utero with significant tricuspid valve disease is extremely poor, with a prenatal course that includes progressive right heart dilation, with cardiac failure and lung hypoplasia in many and development of pulmonary stenose or pulmonary atresia later in gestation in some

Cost-Effectiveness of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1) Vaccination in the United States

Pandemic influenza A(H1N1) (pH1N1) was first identified in North America in April 2009. Vaccination against pH1N1 commenced in the U.S. in October 2009 and continued through January 2010. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pH1N1 vaccination.A computer simulation model was developed to predict costs and health outcomes for a pH1N1 vaccination program using inactivated vaccine compared to no vaccination. Probabilities, costs and quality-of-life weights were derived from emerging primary data on pH1N1 infections in the US, published and unpublished data for seasonal and pH1N1 illnesses, supplemented by expert opinion. The modeled target population included hypothetical cohorts of persons aged 6 months and older stratified by age and risk. The analysis used a one-year time horizon for most endpoints but also includes longer-term costs and consequences of long-term sequelae deaths. A societal perspective was used. Indirect effects (i.e., herd effects) were not included in the primary analysis. The main endpoint was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio in dollars per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Sensitivity analyses were conducted.For vaccination initiated prior to the outbreak, pH1N1 vaccination was cost-saving for persons 6 months to 64 years under many assumptions. For those without high risk conditions, incremental cost-effectiveness ratios ranged from $8,000-$52,000/QALY depending on age and risk status. Results were sensitive to the number of vaccine doses needed, costs of vaccination, illness rates, and timing of vaccine delivery.Vaccination for pH1N1 for children and working-age adults is cost-effective compared to other preventive health interventions under a wide range of scenarios. The economic evidence was consistent with target recommendations that were in place for pH1N1 vaccination. We also found that the delays in vaccine availability had a substantial impact on the cost-effectiveness of vaccination