Subjects, Topics and the Interpretation of Referential pro.

Figure 11
Also in this case, recoverability or ‘long distance’ cannot be invoked: the crucial point is that
the PP al capo (in the previous sentence) is not a Topic, hence it cannot match its referential
features with a subsequent pro. The rising pronoun lui is therefore needed to obviate
coreference with un tizio di Formia (the current Topic at that point).
In Cardinaletti’s (2004) analysis, the necessity of a strong pronoun in (15) would be
attributed to the fact that il capo, though familiar, is not a subject, but an object. Though ccommand
is undoubtedly a key requirement to obtain a Topic-antecedent relation, data show
that this condition is not subject-driven. Consider the following passage:
(16) conduco insieme [al capo]j [questa rubrica]m del giovedì sera […] prom è scritta/ cioè
anche perché noi praticamente (Figure 12) introduciamo una serie di servizi/ di interviste
fatte fuori […] ma speriamo che un po’ alla volta che luij mi dia proprio tutto il
Caleidoscopio (Figure 13)
‘I conduct with [my boss]j [this program]m on Thursday night […] prom is written/ I
mean, also because we in fact present a number of external interviews […] but let’s hope
that little by little that hej will give me all the ‘Caleidoscopio’ [= the relevant program]’
As we can see, the first NS (prom) is coreferent with questa rubrica, which is not the subject,
but a marginalized DO (cf. Cardinaletti 2002). 26 Since the interpretation of the relevant pro is
not at stake, this example shows that pro-coreference is not subject-driven, but Topic-driven.
The fact that questa rubrica is the current Aboutness Topic at the beginning of text (16) is
proved by the realization of noi in the following sentence: the speaker wants to shift the
conversation to herself and her boss, hence, a rising tone is needed to establish the ‘new’
Aboutness Topic (cf. Figure 12). When she finally restricts the topic only to her boss, a L*+H
lui is produced again, as expected (cf. Figure 13):
Figure 12
26 Syntactic marginalization is shown by the fact that the DO (questa rubrica) follows the IO (al capo) and its
status as ‘given’ information is made clear by the anaphoric use of the demonstrative questa (‘this’). The
discourse role of non-clitic resumed right-hand Topics in Italian is discussed in Frascarelli (2000, 2004a).
15