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

Abstract

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.