Abstract
This study deals with subject predicate agreement in Czech and the structure of a null subject. First, it introduces the concept of Null Subject Languages as it has been used in a generative framework. Then it shows the complex feature content of the Czech subject-predicate agreement morphology, arguing that the data repeatedly signal a division of the agreement features into two clear cut feature sets and two distinct agreement domains: (a) the lower, lexical domain inside vP containing the nominal n[±φ] feature set (Gender and N-Number), and (b) the higher, functional domain on the T head, which contains the functional D[±φ] feature set (Person and D-Number). The study relates the analysis to the present day microparametric concept of a Null Subject Parameter as in, e. g., the studies in Biberauer (2010), accepting the hypothesis of the checking of the subject-predicate agreement with two levels of predicate (separate heads v and T). It proposes that with pronominal subjects, the φ feature values can be re-set with respect to the speech act information located in the Aboutness Topic. Given the several levels of agreement, each of which can be licensed by a zero morpheme, the study proposes that pro is a complex entity consisting of two separate parts, each endowed with a distinct set of φ features.
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© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze
- The phonotactics of syllabic liquids in Czech words of foreign origin
- Czech analytic agreement and the characteristics of little pro
- The development of Indo-European obstruent clusters of types plosive + t/s into Slavic
- Between ingressivity and resultativity: The prefix za- in contemporary Polish from a cross-Slavic perspective
- Definiteness markers in the Life of St Petka
- Andrej Platonovs ‚Unsterblichkeit‘
- Buchbesprechung
- Аргументация в русско- и белорусскоязычном научно-гуманитарном дискурсе
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze
- The phonotactics of syllabic liquids in Czech words of foreign origin
- Czech analytic agreement and the characteristics of little pro
- The development of Indo-European obstruent clusters of types plosive + t/s into Slavic
- Between ingressivity and resultativity: The prefix za- in contemporary Polish from a cross-Slavic perspective
- Definiteness markers in the Life of St Petka
- Andrej Platonovs ‚Unsterblichkeit‘
- Buchbesprechung
- Аргументация в русско- и белорусскоязычном научно-гуманитарном дискурсе