In the early 80s, largely due to Chomsky's Lectures on Government and Binding and ensuing research, a kind of encompassing theory of empty elements had emerged. This theory was largely concerned with silent subjects, silent pronominals, and various kinds of traces of movement. Since then, however, the picture has become more blurred. More types of empty elements were proposed, ellipsis phenomena began to receive some attention, and interface issues arose: are silent elements silent due to deletion (or failure to be spelled out) at the phonetic interface or are they independently...
In the early 80s, largely due to Chomsky's Lectures on Government and Binding and ensuing research, a kind of encompassing theory of empty elem...