From free pronouns to probes. A theory for a subset of Spanish clitics

SAAB, ANDRÉS

Seminario; Anglia Ruskin-Cambridge Romance Linguistics Seminars; 2021

Universidad de Cambrisge-Universidad de Anglia Ruskin

Among the myriads of Spanish varieties, Rioplatense Spanish is well-known for having an extended pattern of clitic doubling (cfr. 1 and 2 for accusative doubling), both for accusative and dative arguments. (1) * (Me) vio a mí.[General Spanish] CL.1.SG.ACCsee:PST.3.SG ACC me ?(S)he saw me.?(2)a. Santos (la) miró a Rosa.[Argentinean Spanish]Santos CL.3F.SG.ACClook-at:PST.3SGACCRosa?Santos looked at Rosa.?b. La vieja (lo) tomó al llorón de la mano.DETold-woman CL.3.M.SG.ACC take:PST.3SGACC-DETweeperofDEThand?The old woman took the weeper one by the hand.? [adapted from Kany 1969, 148]However, when compared, these arguments do not present a uniform distribution: whereas dative doubling is strongly preferred with almost any type of DP, accusative doubling is only triggered for a subset of DPs. But beyond this, there is a shared property: (3)Generalization: Accusative and dative doubling is the superficial manifestation of an A-movement configuration. In this talk, I develop two main theses: (4)Thesis 1 (or the synchronic thesis): Doubled clitics are probes, i.e., pure syntactic indexes triggering A-movement. Thesis 2 (or the diachronic thesis): Doubled clitics were borne as free pronouns. The observed pattern is the result of the erosion of the referential properties of those pronouns. In some cases, the erosion of the referential properties extended to all type of referential DPs (dative doubling) and in others only to a subset of them (accusative doubling).I will show that the synchronic thesis is robustly confirmed by all the tools we have to diagnose A-movement (reconstruction, WCO, binding, agreement and so on). As far as the concrete implementation I defend, my analysis assumes that referential indexes in non-thematic position trigger syntactic A-movement for LF reason (essentially, the need for binding a stranded lambda abstractor). As for the diachronic thesis, it has more the character of conjecture. If it turns to be correct, I argue, then Rioplatense doubling could be conceived of a new window to look into the birth and evolution of a subset of syntactic probes related to the so-called (and so mysterious) EPP property.