Thórhallur Eythórsson

Weak explicit arguments  

Landau (2010) proposes an explicit distinction between Strong Implicit Arguments (SIA) and Weak Implicit Arguments (WIA). SIA are silent pronouns but WIA are smaller: they are a D-less φ-bundles and have reduced licensing abilities compared to pronouns in, e.g., secondary predication. As full pronouns can be either overt or covert, it is natural to ask whether D-less φ-bundles are ever overt. We propose that Weak Explicit Arguments (WEA) do in fact exist and provide evidence for this view from an investigation of the reflexive passive in Icelandic.