Wh-drop and recoverability
نویسنده
چکیده
One of the remarkable properties of Verb Second (V2) syntax is the fact that the constituent preceding the finite verb – let’s for simplicity call it ‘SpecCP’ – can under certain circumstances be dropped (cf. Ross 1982; Huang 1984; Fries 1988 for German, Ackema & Neeleman 2007 for Dutch). Pronoun drop is strictly confined to pronouns in SpecCP and can only occur in the root clause. In a context in which, say, Hans is the topic of conversation, a pronoun referring to Hans can be dropped from SpecCP as long as it is recoverable by virtue of linking to structural Case. In German, this restricts topic pronoun drop to nominatives and accusatives. Datives, genitives and pronominal PPs are out (cf. Bayer, Bader & Meng 2001).
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