While there has been a substantial body of research on the asymmetry between main and subordinate clauses in terms of the licensing of pro-drop, potential differences between types of unembedded clause have received much less attention – despite the fact that competing theories of pro-drop make strong, clear predictions about the distribution of null subjects across clause types, especially with regard to interrogatives. This paper presents the first in-depth comparative study of pro-drop in both declaratives and interrogatives in two asymmetric pro-drop languages: Old High German and Old Italian. Based on a parallel corpus study using two translations of Tatian’s Diatessaron, we show that there is a clear difference in distribution between interrogatives and declaratives: null subjects are more frequent in declarative clauses than in interrogatives, and these also differ in terms of the persons in which pro-drop is licensed. Our results speak against the V-in-C licensing theory of asymmetric pro-drop of Benincà (1984) and Adams (1987), and in favour of an account based on an Agree relation with left-peripheral operators in the sense of Frascarelli (2007, 2018).
While there has been a substantial body of research on the asymmetry between main and subordinate clauses in terms of the licensing of pro-drop, potential differences between types of unembedded clause have received much less attention – despite the fact that competing theories of pro-drop make strong, clear predictions about the distribution of null subjects across clause types, especially with regard to interrogatives. This paper presents the first in-depth comparative study of pro-drop in both declaratives and interrogatives in two asymmetric pro-drop languages: Old High German and Old Italian. Based on a parallel corpus study using two translations of Tatian’s Diatessaron, we show that there is a clear difference in distribution between interrogatives and declaratives: null subjects are more frequent in declarative clauses than in interrogatives, and these also differ in terms of the persons in which pro-drop is licensed. Our results speak against the V-in-C licensing theory of asymmetric pro-drop of Benincà (1984) and Adams (1987), and in favour of an account based on an Agree relation with left-peripheral operators in the sense of Frascarelli (2007, 2018).
Autori: | ||
Data di pubblicazione: | 2019 | |
Titolo: | Pro-drop in interrogatives and declaratives. A parallel study of Old High German and Old Italian | |
Rivista: | LINGUISTIK ONLINE | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.13092/lo.100.6020 | |
Volume: | 100 Nr. 7 (2019) | |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 2.1 Articolo su rivista |
File in questo prodotto:
File | Descrizione | Tipologia | Licenza | |
---|---|---|---|---|
COGNOLA_WALKDEN_2019_LO.pdf | Versione dell'editore | ![]() | Open Access Visualizza/Apri | |
LO_TOC.pdf | Table of contents | Versione dell'editore | ![]() | Open Access Visualizza/Apri |