Null Expletive Pronoun: A Minimalist Approach‎

زبانشناسی و گویش های خراسان

Article 2, Volume 6, Issue 11, July 2015, Pages 29-53   

Document Type: علمی - پژ‍وهشی

DOI: 10.22067/lj.v6i11.45297

Author

Mazdak Anoushe^*

University of Tehran

Abstract

Traditional work on pro-drop languages identified a set of parametric values ‎associated with the availability of null subjects, including the presence of null ‎expletive subjects. In the same vein, but more within the framework of Minimalist ‎Program, I will discuss while referential subjects may optionally be overt or covert ‎in the Persian, expletives are obligatorily null. In this regard, a covert pronoun ‎expletive will be claimed to have merged in the surface subject position of all zero-‎place predicates and some unaccusative structures where the internal argument is a ‎PP or CP, satisfying the EPP feature - a requirement forcing some DP to appear in ‎the specifier of the clausal head. This analysis is empirically supported by a number ‎of facts arguing against the idea that pronoun in (this) can freely appear as an ‎expletive subject.‎

Keywords

Expletive pronoun; Pro-drop; extended projection principle; Zero-place predicate; ‎Unaccusative predicate

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