This volume brings the data that many in formal linguistics have dismissed as peripheral straight into the core of syntactic theory. By bringing together experts from syntax, semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, language acquisition, aphasia, and pidgin and creole studies, the volume makes a multidisciplinary case for the existence of nonsententials, which are analyzed in various chapters as root phrases and small clauses (Me; Me First!; Him worry?!; Class in session), and whose distinguishing property is the absence of Tense, and, with it, any syntactic phenomena that rely on Tense, including structural Nominative Case. Arguably, the lack of Tense specification is also responsible for the dearth of indicative interpretations among nonsententials, as well as for their heavy reliance on pragmatic context. So pervasive is nonsentential speech across all groups, including normal adult speech, that a case can be made that continuity of grammar lies in nonsentential, rather than sentential speech.

Table of contents

Preface ix Introduction Ljiljana Progovac, Kate Paesani, Eugenia Casielles and Ellen Barton 1–9 1. Toward a nonsentential analysis in generative grammar Ellen Barton 11–31 2. The syntax of nonsententials: Small clauses and phrases at the root Ljiljana Progovac 33–71 3. "Small structures": A sententialist perspective Jason Merchant 73–91 4. Neither fragments nor ellipsis Robert J. Stainton 93–116 5. Big questions, small answers Eugenia Casielles 117–145 6. Extending the nonsentential analysis: The case of special registers Kate Paesani 147–182 7. The narrowing acquisition path: From expressive small clauses to declaratives Christopher Potts and Thomas Roeper 183–201 8. Nonsententials in second language acquisition Nicola Work 203–227 9. How language adapts to the brain: An analysis of agrammatic aphasia Herman Kolk 229–258 10. Nonsententials and agrammatism Patricia Siple 259–281 11. Reduced syntax in (prototypical) pidgins Donald Winford 283–307 12. Copula variation in Guyanese Creole and AAVE: Implications for nonsentential grammar Walter F. Edwards 309–322 Epilogue: Wherefrom and whereto? Ljiljana Progovac, Kate Paesani, Eugenia Casielles and Ellen Barton 323–353 Index 355–372

"Altogether this is a fascinating volume, especially given the breathtaking range of data and subfields that it brings together in order to explore the syntactic structures and cognitive processes that may underlie the production and comprehension of ‘fragments’. There is so much to learn from the individual chapters and from the volume as a whole. A momentous and provocative piece of work." Michel DeGraff, MIT

"According to Richard Montague, the task of syntax is to give a recursive definition of the set of well-formed expressions of every category of a given language; for compositional semantics that is a very natural perspective, since it is not only sentences that have meanings. But few linguists made much of this aspect of Montague’s approach. I was happy when I first encountered Ellen Barton’s work on non-sentential constituents around 1989. I had long believed that there are non-trivial speech acts involving non-elliptical non-sentential constituents, but the topic never got to the top of my agenda, so I am immensely grateful that such an excellent team of linguists has put together such a strong collection of papers invoking such a breadth of perspectives. I hope this book unleashes a flood of new work on this important topic." Barbara H. Partee, University of Massachusetts-Amherst