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Article published In: Italo-Romance Morphosyntax: Theoretical and empirical issues
Edited by Francesco Maria Ciconte and Michela Cennamo
[Linguistic Variation 26:1] 2026
► pp. 61–75

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On the interpretation of inflected subject clitics

 | Università di Udine
 | Università di Padova
Published online: 18 August 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.25003.lor
Abstract
This paper discusses the distribution of subject clitics in nominal copular constructions in the variety of Este (PD) which is a partial pro-drop language where null subjects alternate with subject proclitics: when a postverbal subject NP is present, no subject clitic is allowed with lexical verbs. However, subject proclitics are allowed with postverbal subjects in inverse copular sentences where the postverbal NP agrees with both the copula and the subject proclitic. This paper explores the available discourse semantic interpretations of inverse copular sentences resulting by this inflectional pattern: while the preverbal predicative NP is a topicalized intensional element that instantiates a description, the postverbal NP represents new information. The preverbal predicative NP does not refer to an entity, but to a property representing the subset that includes the postverbal subject NP which a focal element introduced, just in this configuration, by a subject proclitic.
Article outline
  • 0.Introduction
  • 1.The distribution of proclitics in Este variety
  • 2.Agreement in inverse copular sentences
  • 3.The informational status of postverbal subject in copular sentences
    • 3.1Information structure and the invariant clitic ‘a’
    • 3.2Information structure and negative quantifiers
    • 3.3NP1 and NP2 movement
    • 3.4The syntax of inverse copulars
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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