This dissertation seeks to situate a description of English ‘subjectless’, or zero anaphoric, turn constructional units (TCUs) in an understanding of grammar as an interactional phenomenon designed in particular sequential environments to accomplish social actions. The primary site of natural language is ordinary conversation, in which it is widely observed that people do not always speak in full, grammatical sentences. While traditional grammars and generative approaches tend to describe syntactically incomplete utterances, i.e., fragments, as elliptical forms of longer strings, the systematic use (or omission) in particular sequential environments of lexical, phrasal, and clausal elements can be understood as being part of what Schegloff (1996a) termed a positionally sensitive grammar. In other words, linguistic constructions are designed to be apposite for the sequential environments in which they occur, to perform actions, and to be understood and responded to by recipients as being the appropriate form for that position. Several practices of zero anaphora will be explored using the methodology of conversation analysis (CA): the use of zero anaphora in ‘troubled’ environments, including complaints and other-initiations of repair (OIR) in sequences of disagreement (i.e., negatively-valenced actions according to Schegloff, 1997), and the use of zero anaphora in topic closure and topic transition sequences, specifically in TCUs that act as summaries, upshots, and/or ‘concluding resignations’. The recurrent use of zero anaphora in specific sequential environments suggests that such syntactic incompleteness is not random or an error, but rather, that it is employed systematically as a turn design feature in conversation to achieve interactional aims.
