Subjects, Topics and the Interpretation of Referential pro.

(46) a. [la storia [che Mariok ha detto a me]]j laj dice prok a tutti
the story that Mario have.3SG told to me it tell.3SG to everybody
‘The story that Mariok told me, hek tells (it) to everybody.’
b. [la storia [che a Mariok piace di più]]j laj dice prok a tutti
the story that to Mario please.3SG more it tell.3SG to everybody
‘The story that Mariok likes most, hek tells (it) to everybody.’
c.
? [la storia [che a Mariok, gli hanno raccontato]]j laj dice prok a tutti
the story that to Mario to-him have.3PL told it tell.3SG to everybody
‘The story that Mariok was told , hek tells (it) to everybody.’
d. *[la storia [che a Mariok hanno raccontato]]j laj dice prok a tutti
the story that to Mario have.3PL told it tell.3SG to everybody
In (46a-d) the DP Mario is contained in a relative clause that is part of a DO-Topic (resumed
by the clitic la). Given this type of construction, it is clear that nominative subjects (46a),
raised datives (46b) and clitic-resumed Topics (46c) can be coreferent with the matrix pro
(though the latter yields some marginal effect), while this possibility is excluded for non
clitic-resumed Topics (cf. (46d)). According to the present analysis, this means that
nominative, raised datives and clitic-resumed Topics can be the low (Familiar) copies of a
silent Aboutness-shift Topic, while this is not possible for non clitic-resumed Topics:
(47) a. [ [la storia [che Mariok ha [prok detto a me]] la dice prok a tutti]]
b.
c.
[ [la storiaj [che a Mariok piace [proj di più]] la dice prok a tutti]]
?
[ [la storia [che a Mariok, glik hanno [proz raccontato]] la dice prok a
tutti]]
d. *[ [la storia [che a Mariok hanno [proz raccontato]] la dice prok a tutti]]
The extrasentential Merge that is assumed for clitic-resumed Topics provides an explanation
for this asymmetry. In (47a-c) the DP Mario is a Topic in the relative clause. It is therefore
located in an A'-position and, as such, it can be coreferent with the Aboutness-shift Topic. 54
Non-clitic resumed Topics, on the other hand, are merged in the vP-phase and move to some
specific A-position higher than AgrSP (cf. Hinterhölzl and Pili 2004). This means that in
(47d) coreference between the Aboutness Topic and the PP a Mario is excluded.
6.2 A Note on postverbal Subjects
Throughout this paper, evidence has been provided that preverbal subjects that serve as
antecedent for pro are merged as Topics (i.e., they are A'-constituents in the C-domain). What
about postverbal subjects? Depending on their syntactic and intonational properties, they are
generally associated with Focus and focused DPs cannot start a Topic chain (cf. section 4.2).
However, a postverbal subject can share referential features, as can be easily shown by
sentences like the following:
(48) a. [quando ha parlato Leok] ha prok convinto tutti.
‘When Leok spoke, hek convinced everybody.’
54 The marginality of (47c) can be attributed to a non-perfect identity between the Aboutness-shift Topic (the DP
) and the Topic PP (a Mario), which somehow biases the matching.
30