The null subject parameter and correlating properties: The case of Creole languages

Nicolis, Marco

doi:10.1075/la.132.11nic

In:The Limits of Syntactic Variation
Edited by Theresa Biberauer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 132] 2008
► pp. 271–294

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The null subject parameter and correlating properties: The case of Creole languages

Marco Nicolis

Published online: 17 September 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/la.132.11nic

The existence of correlations between the positive setting of the Null Subject

Parameter and other grammatical properties has recently been called into

question (see Newmeyer (2005)). In this paper, I show that the proref →pro-ref

correlation appears to be exceptionless and that it follows directly from the theory

of pro–drop in Rizzi (1986a). Rizzi (1982) proposes that the availability of Free

Inversion is what allows for the lack of that–t effects in pro–drop languages;

this, I further show, is empirically untenable. I present data from several Creole

languages that suggest that the lack of that–t effects in these languages is related

to the availability of null expletive pro. I take the latter to be a sufficient, but not

necessary, condition for the lack of that–t effects. I finally discuss the implication

of this finding for the parametric model.

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2024. The Setting of the Null Subject Parameters across (Non-)Null-Subject Languages. Languages 9:8 ► pp. 276 ff.

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2021. The That-Trace Effect: Evidence from Spanish–English Code-Switching. Languages 6:4 ► pp. 189 ff.

Kinn, Kari

2016. Referential vs. non-referential null subjects in Middle Norwegian. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 39:3 ► pp. 277 ff.

Mensching, Guido & Anja Weingart

2016. The Null Subject Parameter and the Lexicon in Minimalist Syntax. In Rethinking Parameters, ► pp. 291 ff.

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Pöll, Bernhard

2015. Caribbean Spanish = Brazilian Portuguese? Some comparative thoughts on the loss ofpro-drop. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 8:2 ► pp. 317 ff.

Barbosa, Pilar

2011. Pro‐drop and Theories of pro in the Minimalist Program Part 2: Pronoun Deletion Analyses of Null Subjects and Partial, Discourse and Semi pro‐drop. Language and Linguistics Compass 5:8 ► pp. 571 ff.

Barbosa, Pilar P.

2011. Pro‐drop and Theories of pro in the Minimalist Program Part 1: Consistent Null Subject Languages and the Pronominal‐Agr Hypothesis. Language and Linguistics Compass 5:8 ► pp. 551 ff.

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