Null arguments in Old Norwegian: interaction between pronouns and the functional categories of the clause

Abstract

In this paper I propose a new analysis of null arguments in Old Norwegian. I argue that the option of null realization in Old Norwegian correlates with a distinction between φ P and DP pronouns in the sense of Déchaine & Wiltschko (2002), and that this distribution can be captured by a version of pronoun deletion (Roberts 2010b). On a more general, theoretical level, I argue that both the structure of pronouns and that of the functional domains C, T and v influence the null argument properties of a language. Thus, null arguments, but also blocking\textit{blocking} of null arguments in non-null-argument languages like Modern Norwegian and English, may be derived in different ways.This paper is partially funded by the European Research Council Advanced Grant No. 269752 “Rethinking Comparative Syntax.

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