Resumen de SVO, (silent) topics and the interpretation of referential pro: a discourse-syntax interface approach
The issue of how a null subject (or argumental pro) is licensed and interpreted has been a matter of debate in syntactic theory for decades. Participating in this debate, this paper proposes a novel approach to the licensing and interpretation of the referential 3 (person) pro/topic in human languages, based on discourse-syntax interface. I provide evidence from across languages that the antecedent of the dropped pro/topic is a (silent) preverbal DP. I show that this DP is an aboutness-topic, merged in the C-domain, specifically in the Specifier of the Topic Phrase, where Topic Phrase is assumed to be a phase whose head, i.e. Topic, is endowed with an aboutness feature. Based on interpretation motivations, the aboutness feature counts as an Edge Feature, which requires merging a (silent) aboutness-topic in Spec,TopP, hence yielding a discourse property and coreferentially correlating the given aboutness-topic with the argumental pro in Spec, v P. Evidence is provided that pro enters the derivation with valued, but uninterpretable features. These valued features (of pro) value T’s unvalued features via agree. The uninter - pretable features of pro are interpreted by the interpretable features of the A-topic via agree as Match. As a result, pro is interpreted as a definite 3 person pronoun. The paper also provides empirical evidence that pro can be locally and nonlocally coreferentially correlated with the A-topic via matching A`-chains. A (Silent) A-topic Principle is proposed as a Universal Grammar condition, which is necessitated by interpretive and performative requirements. Given this Universal Grammar property, the Silent A-topic Principle licenses (silent) A-topics as antecedents for pros/dropped topics across human languages
