On the notion of partial (non-) pro-drop in Romance

Abstract

This paper centers on the nature of partial pro-drop in Northern Italian dialects and Brazilian Portuguese. I propose that the distribution of overt and null subjects in these languages provides evidence for an analysis of the null subject parameter in terms of ellipsis. In particular, I defend the idea that nominative subjects are deleted at PF in consistent null subject languages through what I call head ellipsis, a morphological operation subjected to the same locality conditions as other post-syntactic operations. Head ellipsis dictates when and how a particular syntactic object should be pronounced. Thus, Northern Italian dialects are seen as null subject languages with some subjects phonetically realized by the same reasons that apply in other cases of multiple copy realization. In turn, Brazilian Portuguese is a non-null subject language with some null subjects. Crucially, these subjects are not the result of morphological head ellipsis, but of another syntactic mechanism of licensing. A fundamental division between morphological oriented and syntactically oriented languages is then made.