When discourse met null subjects

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/1.5.2.3727

Keywords:

null subject, types of topics, types of foci, null copies

Abstract

In this paper a novel view of the distribution of null subjects in Spanish is explored in which the discourse category which the antecedent of pro is analysed. Implementing Frascarelli’s (2007) work, I propose that the crucial condition to meet is for the null subject to be coreferential with an Aboutness-Shift Topic, which must be either an explicit or null copy in the local domain where pro is inserted. When null, this antecedent can refer back to any type of discourse category. The analysis is supported by an experiment run among native speakers of Spanish.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-01

How to Cite

Jimenez-Fernandez, A. (2016). When discourse met null subjects. Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 5(2), 173–189. https://doi.org/10.7557/1.5.2.3727

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2016)

Section

Articles on the monographic topic
Crossref
10
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Alexandra Simonenko, Benoît Crabbé, Sophie Prévost (2020)
Diachronic Treebanks for Historical Linguistics. Benjamins Current Topics, 113, 95.
10.1075/bct.113.04sim
Mara Frascarelli, Ángel L. Jiménez‐Fernández (2021)
How Much Room for Discourse in Imperative? The Lens of Interface on English, Italian and Spanish*. Studia Linguistica, 75(3), 375.
10.1111/stul.12153
Ana Ojea (2017)
Core intentional features in the syntactic computation: Deriving the position of the subject in Spanish. Lingua, 195, 72.
10.1016/j.lingua.2017.06.007
Ángel L. Jiménez-Fernández, Mercedes Tubino-Blanco (2022)
Points of Convergence in Romance Linguistics. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 360, 143.
10.1075/cilt.360.08jim
Alexandra Simonenko, Benoît Crabbé, Sophie Prévost (2018)
Text form and grammatical changes in Medieval French. Diachronica, 35(3), 393.
10.1075/dia.00008.sim
Antje Muntendam, M. Carmen Parafita Couto (2024)
Code-Switching at the Interfaces. Languages, 9(8), 258.
10.3390/languages9080258
Mara Frascarelli, Marco Casentini (2019)
The Interpretation of Null Subjects in a Radical Pro-drop Language: Topic Chains and Discourse-semantic Requirements in Chinese. Studies in Chinese Linguistics, 40(1), 1.
10.2478/scl-2019-0001
Antonia Tovar Torres, Wolfgang Sebastian Schmeisser Nieto, Aina Garí Soler, Catalina Morey Matamalas, Wolfram Hinzen (2019)
Language disintegration under conditions of severe formal thought disorder. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 4(1),
10.5334/gjgl.720
Mara Frascarelli, Ángel L. Jiménez‐Fernández (2019)
Understanding Partiality in pro‐Drop Languages: An Information‐Structure Approach. Syntax, 22(2-3), 162.
10.1111/synt.12184
Johan De La Rosa Yacomelo (2020)
Sujetos nulos: tipología lingüística, adquisición y contacto de lenguas. Forma y Función, 33(2), 109.
10.15446/fyf.v33n2.79774