The Distribution of a Subject Clitic Pronoun in a Franco-Provençal Dialect and the Licensing of Pro  

Oleh:

Crousaz, Isabelle ; Shlonsky, Ur.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Linguistic Inquiry (ada di JSTOR) vol. 34 no. 3 (2003), page 413-442.
Topik: null subject; Franco-Provenqal; Romance; French; subject clitic; null topic; government; pro licensing; unaccusative; motion verbs
Fulltext: Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 413-442.pdf (2.83MB)

Isi artikel

We study the distribution of null subjects in one Franco-Provengal variety. These are possible in root declaratives, obligatory in embedded subject position, and impossible in root wh-questions as well as in the company of weather predicates. We approach null subjects indirectly, by investigating the distribution of one subject clitic, arguing that its optionality in some contexts is due to the possibility of moving pro to a peripheral topic position, where formal licensing is not required. We also discuss the circumstances in which an overt complementizer and a robustly inflected verb license pro, rendering the clitic redundant. The comparative interest of this dialect is that it reveals synchronically the three mechanisms of pro licensing available in Romance diachroni- cally. These are (a) association with rich verbal inflection, (b) govern- ment by a complementizer, and (c) doubling by a clitic. We contend that the syntax is sensitive to the formal relationship between an XP and a head that these three mechanisms instantiate.

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