Null Subjects in Generative Grammar

A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective

Edited by Federica Cognola and Jan Casalicchio

Includes data from a wide range of typologically diverse languages, including Italian, Vietnamese, and Kashubian
Offers comprehensive coverage of all types of null-subject language - consistent, partial, and radical
Chapters contributed by leading experts in the field

Null Subjects in Generative Grammar

A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective

Edited by Federica Cognola and Jan Casalicchio

Description

This book considers the null-subject phenomenon, whereby some languages lack an overtly realized referential subject in specific contexts. In generative syntax-the approach adopted in this volume-the phenomenon has traditionally been explained in terms of a 'pro-drop' parameter with associated cluster properties; more recently, however, it has become clear that pro-drop phenomena do not always correlate with all the initially predicted cluster properties.

This volume returns to the centre of the debate surrounding the empirical phenomena associated with null subjects. Experts in the field explore the cluster properties associated with pro-drop; the types of null category involved in null-subject phenomena and their identification; and the typology of null-subject languages, with a special focus on partial null-subject languages. Chapters include both novel empirical data and new theoretical analyses covering the major approaches to null subjects in generative grammar. A wide range of languages are examined, ranging from the most commonly studied in research into null subjects, such as Finnish and Italian, to lesser-studied languages such as Vietnamese and Polish, minority languages such as Cimbrian and Kashubian, and historical varieties such as Old French and Old High German. The research presented also contributes to the understanding of other key syntactic phenomena, such as the nature of control, the role of information structure and semantics in syntax, the mechanisms of language change, and the formalization of language variation.

The breadth and depth of the volume will make it a valuable resource not only for generative syntacticians, but also for all those working in the fields of historical linguistics, typology, comparative grammar, semantics, and theoretical and descriptive linguistics more generally.

Null Subjects in Generative Grammar

A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective

Edited by Federica Cognola and Jan Casalicchio

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Notes on contributors
1:On the null-subject phenomenon: An example of successful linguistic research, Federica Cognola and Jan Casalicchio
Part I: Properties of null-subject languages
2:On nó, an optional expletive in Vietnamese, Ciro Greco, Trang Phan, and Liliane Haegeman
3:Developing pro-drop: the case of Cimbrian, Ermenegildo Bidese and Alessandra Tomaselli
4:Null subjects, expletives, and the status of Medieval French, Michael Zimmermann
5:Pro-drop and emergent parameter hierarchies, Theresa Biberauer
Part II: Types of null subjects and identification
Part IIa: Null subjects and control theory
6:On the difference between exhaustive and partial control, Michelle Sheehan
7:Diachronic change and the nature of pronominal null subjects: The case of Russian, Nerea Madariaga
8:On the interpretation of gerundival null subjects and the theory of control, Verner Egerland
Part IIb: Null subjects between discourse and agreement
9:The interpretation of pro in consistent and partial null subject languages: A comparative interface analysis, Mara Frascarelli
10:Syntactic representation of null arguments: [NP e] as [nP n] (Minimally), Marta Ruda
11:Referential null subjects in German: Dialects and diachronic continuity, Helmut Weiß and Anna Volodina
12:Null subjects and distinct agreement in Modern Germanic, Henrik Rosenkvist
References
Index

Null Subjects in Generative Grammar

A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective

Edited by Federica Cognola and Jan Casalicchio

Author Information

Edited by Federica Cognola, Contract Lecturer in German Linguistics, University of Trento, and Jan Casalicchio, Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Trento

Federica Cognola is a Lecturer in German Linguistics at La Sapienza University in Rome. After receiving her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Padua in 2010, she worked as a Research Fellow at the Universities of Trento (2010-2015) and Venice Ca' Foscari (2015-2016), and as a contract lecturer in German linguistics at the Universities of Trento and Verona. She has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Tromsø, Cambridge, and Potsdam. Her research interests include verb second, OV/VO word orders, overt and null referential and expletive subjects, scrambling, contact linguistics, monolingual and bilingual language acquisition, language variation and change, and diachronic syntax.

Jan Casalicchio received his PhD in Linguistics at the University of Padua in 2013, and is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Utrecht University, within the ERC-funded project 'Microcontact' (https://microcontact.sites.uu.nl). Previously, he worked as a Post-Doctoral researcher at the University of Trento (on the ERC-synergy grant project 'Advancing the European Multilingual Experience'), and as Contract Lecturer at the Universities of Verona and of Bolzano/Bozen. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and at the Georg-August Universität Göttingen. His research interests include Romance formal syntax (focusing on verbal small clauses, verb second, and subject clitics in Romance), Northern Italian dialectology, contact linguistics, language variation and change, and diachronic syntax.

Contributors:

Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge
Ermenegildo Bidese, University of Trento
Jan Casalicchio, University of Trento
Federica Cognola, University of Trento
Verner Egerland, Lund University
Mara Frascarelli, University of Rome Tre
Ciro Greco, University of Milan-Bicocca
Liliane Haegeman, Ghent University
Nerea Madariaga, University of the Basque Country
Trang Phan, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City
Henrik Rosenkvist, Gothenburg University
Marta Ruda, Jagiellonian University Kraków
Michelle Sheehan, Anglia Ruskin University
Alessandra Tomaselli, University of Verona
Anna Volodina, Institute for the German Language, Mannheim
Helmut Weiß, Goethe University, Frankfurt
Michael Zimmermann, University of Konstanz