The syntax of the indefinite pronoun nome
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Roberta D'Alessandro
Abstract
This paper examines the syntax of the indefinite pronoun nome in Eastern Abruzzese. Nome is syntactically intriguing as it appears in a subject position which is not available to other NPs. Moreover, it does not have any corresponding form in any other Italian dialect, except for Sardinian and some Marchigiano varieties. We first show that nome is a clitic subject, more precisely a weak pronoun subject in the sense of Cardinaletti and Starke (1999). Then, we draw a tentative sketch for the syntactic word patterns in EA. We argue that the properties and the behavior of nome support those views that recognize the need for specialized subject positions (Cardinaletti 1997, 2004).
© Walter de Gruyter