Remarks on expletive subject in Old Italian (13th – 14th C), Old French and Northern Italian varieties
Abstract
The expletive subject characterizes both the syntax of ancient Italian and of Old French; moreover, it is a syntactic feature of Old Occitan and old Northern Italian varieties. Starting from the consideration that romance languages are the continuation of a pro-drop language as Latin was, it is not surprising to find pro-drop stages in the oldest testimonies of the romance languages too. However, the non-compulsory nature of the non-pro-drop syntax appears as a complex rule, i.e. with an asymmetric pro-drop syntax: main clauses are organized in a typically pro-drop syntax, on the other hand subordinate clauses show a strong tendency to express subject pronouns. The history of expletive pronouns in Old Italian, Old French, Old Occitan and old Northern Italian varieties combines with this complex syntactic feature.
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