Michelangelo Falco & Roberto Zamparelli (University of Trento)

The only real pro-nouns  

Abstract:  

The study  of pronouns has  focused on personal pronouns  replacing Determiner Phrases, paying  little attention to  pronouns which replace subparts  of DPs, namely  Noun Phrases  (NPs), such  as French  "en", Italian  "ne" and  English "one(s)". Although "ne" should be lexically equivalent to "one", the two forms seems  to  obey different  constraints.  In  this  paper,  we argue  that  the differences are superficial, and can  be ascribed to independent properties of Italian and English. We show that  the diverging acceptability of "one(s)" and "ne" when these forms appear bare, without a determiner, confirms a Carlsonian view of  bare nouns, but  points to a  difference between English  and Italian bare nouns. We study the conditions for bare "ne" and show that they support a tripartite  classification of  verbs  according  to the  type  of object they select. Finally, we show  that the fact that pro-NPs cannot  be reduced to the Elbourne's format for  pronouns is a welcome result, since pro-NP pronouns do not  display  the  binding  and   anaphoric  properties  of  pro-DP  pronouns.