Edited by Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen and Luisa Meroni
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 357] 2021
► pp. 171–190
This paper rethinks Holmberg’s (2005) characterization of partial vs. consistent null subject languages (NSL) based on data from Brazilian and European Portuguese, the former a partial, the latter a consistent NSL. The paper proposes that rather than overt morphological distinctions, what is relevant for null subject licensing is the underlying feature specification of the verbal inflection, after agreement between T and a pronominal subject values the relevant person/number/gender/Case feature. Hence, only close inspection of the pronominal and agreement systems of individual NSLs permits an adequate characterization of them, for the same language may behave as a ‘partial’, ‘consistent’, or ‘radical’ NSL depending on the morphological feature specification of its nominative pronouns and T heads.