Pro-drop in interrogatives and declaratives : A parallel study of Old High German and Old Italian

Cognola, Federica; Walkden, George

Pro-drop in interrogatives and declaratives : A parallel study of Old High German and Old Italian

Files

Cognola_2-ir4xml70pvzd3.pdf(1.36 MB)

Date

2019

Publication type

Journal article

Publication status

Published

Published in

Linguistik Online ; 100 (2019), 7. - pp. 95-140. - eISSN 1615-3014

Abstract

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).

Subject (DDC)

400 Philology, Linguistics

Cite This

ISO 690

COGNOLA, Federica, George WALKDEN, 2019. Pro-drop in interrogatives and declaratives : A parallel study of Old High German and Old Italian. In: Linguistik Online. 100(7), pp. 95-140. eISSN 1615-3014. Available under: doi: 10.13092/lo.100.6020

BibTex

@article{Cognola2019Prodr-48172,
  year={2019},
  doi={10.13092/lo.100.6020},
  title={Pro-drop in interrogatives and declaratives : A parallel study of Old High German and Old Italian},
  number={7},
  volume={100},
  journal={Linguistik Online},
  pages={95--140},
  author={Cognola, Federica and Walkden, George}
}

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Refereed

Yes