On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German
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Federica Cognola
Abstract
This paper focuses on the distribution of null subjects in inti coordinated clauses in the Old High German translation of Tatian’s Diatessaron and shows that the presence of null referential subjects in this construction should not be analysed as a case of Topic drop of the same type of present-day German, but as a case of pure pro-drop of Romance type, involving the presence of a silent category pro licensed via a matching relation with a null Topic in CP (cf. Frascarelli 2007, 2018). The analysis will be shown to be able to also account for the presence of V1 main clauses with free-inversion (Inversion nach inti sentences, cf. Coniglio & Schlachter 2013) and to offer a novel scenario on the loss of both the Inversion nach inti construction and pro-drop in the history of German.
Abstract
This paper focuses on the distribution of null subjects in inti coordinated clauses in the Old High German translation of Tatian’s Diatessaron and shows that the presence of null referential subjects in this construction should not be analysed as a case of Topic drop of the same type of present-day German, but as a case of pure pro-drop of Romance type, involving the presence of a silent category pro licensed via a matching relation with a null Topic in CP (cf. Frascarelli 2007, 2018). The analysis will be shown to be able to also account for the presence of V1 main clauses with free-inversion (Inversion nach inti sentences, cf. Coniglio & Schlachter 2013) and to offer a novel scenario on the loss of both the Inversion nach inti construction and pro-drop in the history of German.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Interface phenomena and language change 1
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Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
- Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
- The object position in Old Norwegian 61
- Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
- On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
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Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
- Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
- Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
- Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
- Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
- Index 253
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Interface phenomena and language change 1
-
Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
- Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
- The object position in Old Norwegian 61
- Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
- On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
-
Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
- Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
- Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
- Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
- Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
- Index 253
