Faetar null subjects: a variationist study of a heritage language in contact

Naomi Nagy; Michael Iannozzi; David Heap

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2017-0040

Article

Faetar null subjects: a variationist study of a heritage language in contact

Naomi Nagy , Michael Iannozzi and David Heap

Published/Copyright: November 21, 2017

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From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2018 Issue 249

Abstract

Faetar is an under-documented variety descended from Francoprovençal and spoken in two isolated Apulian villages in southern Italy as well as in the emigrant diaspora, especially in the Greater Toronto Area. Speakers use two series of subject pronouns (strong and weak pronouns), producing sentences with zero, one or two overt subject pronouns. The status of the overt forms as subject pronouns, emphatic pronouns, left- or right-dislocated pronouns, clitics, or affixes is not clear. Contrary to the predictions of the Null Subject Parameter hypothesis (Perlmutter 1971, Deep and surface structure constraints in syntax. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston; Chomsky 1981, Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris), these grammars have subject pronoun paradigms that are variable and conditioned by a number of linguistic factors (including person, tense, information status and subject type). This article delineates which aspects vary diachronically, spatially, or between individuals – a necessary prerequisite to constructing a theoretical model that accounts for this variation. By comparing the patterns of use in France, Italy, and Toronto, and using sources that span nearly a century, we see that despite the very small size of its speech community, Faetar shows little sign of accommodating to English’s virtually categorical presence of subject pronouns, nor to Italian’s high null subject (hereafter Ø-subject) rate, nor to the conditioning effects found in those languages.

Keywords: Faetar; heritage language; pro-drop; null subject; Toronto

Acknowledgements

This research would not be possible without generous contributions of time and knowledge from our speakers; valuable discussions about pronouns with Julie Auger, Miriam Meyerhoff, Terry Nadasdi, Gillian Sankoff and Vera Richetti Smith; research assistants Tonia Djogovic, Rick Grimm, Tiina Rebane; and financial support from: SSHRC Standard Research Grant 410-2009-2330, Salvatori Research Grants in 1992, 1993, and 1994 to the first author; SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship 752-91-2167 to the third author; and support from Keren Rice’s Canada Research Chair, the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto and the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. We thank the Chicago Linguistic Society editors for permission to adapt sections of Nagy and Heap (1998) in this article.

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Published Online: 2017-11-21

Published in Print: 2017-12-20

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2017-0040

Keywords for this article

Faetar; heritage language; pro-drop; null subject; Toronto