SIL talk by Mara Frascarelli (Roma Tre University)

The interpretation of (c)overt Subjects in Romance Languages. An experimental comparative account

Based on the theory proposed in Frascarelli (2007), according to which the interpretation of null subjects (NS) and (prosodically weak) overt subject pronouns (OP) depend on an Agree relation with a specific type of Topic (i.e. the A-Topic, cf. Frascarelli & Hinterhölzl 2007, Frascarelli 2007), the first objective of this paper is to provide the result of an original experiment showing that the lack of prosodic cues speakers are not able to establish a clear reference for NSs nor for OPs. Indeed, comparative data from both consistent (Italian, Romanian and Spanish), partial (American Spanish and Russian) and non pro-drop languages (French) show that (i) no recurrent patterns can be found across different languages, (ii) subject OPs do
not seem to have a significant effect on identifying a clear-cut antecedent, (iii) NSs are not subject-oriented nor are OPs context-oriented (contra Filiaci et al. 2013); in juxtaposed sentences NSs/OPs are only tendentially(but not significantly) linked to the subject of the previous sentence.

Delving into the syntactic, prosodic and discourse-related properties of different types of Topics, the result of a second original experiment will be thus provided showing the validity of assuming the existence of multi-clausal domains in which (possibly silent) A-Topics head topic chains and allow for the intended interpretation of NSs and Ops, avoiding ambiguities.

Furthermore, from an acquisitional perspective, children from 3 to 9 years old (who collaborated as informants), provide evidence that this productive ability has a crucial turning point between 6 and 7 years of age (cf. also Frascarelli & Carella 2019).

Empirical evidence thus strongly supports the relevance of discourse-related categories for the interpretation of (c)overt pronouns and the crucial role of the PF interface in the interpretation of pronoun antecedents, leading to a reconsideration of Chomsky’s (1981) “Avoid pronoun” principle.

References
Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrech, Foris.
Filiaci, Francesca Sorace A. and M. Carreiras. 2013. Anaphoric biasis and null overt subjects in Italian and Spanish: a cross-linguistic comparison. Language and Cognitive Processes, 1-19.
Frascarelli, Mara. 2007. Subjects, Topics and the Interpretation of Referential pro. An interface approach to the linking of (null) pronouns. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 25:691-734.
Frascarelli, Mara and Giorgio Carella. 2019. Topic chains and the interpretation of null subjects: The acquisition of discourse-related strategies in Italian. The Linguistic Review, 36.
Frascarelli, Mara and Roland Hinterhölzl. 2007. Types of topics in German and Italian. In K. Schwabe and S. Winkler (eds.), On Information Structure, Meaning and Form, 87-116. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins.
Frascarelli, Mara. 2017. Dislocations and Framings. In Elisabeth Stark and Andreas Dufter (eds.) Manual of Romance Morphosyntax and Syntax, 472-501. Berlin, Mouton.