Null Subjects in the Middle Low German

Author:

Farasyn, Melissa  Breitbarth, Anne  

Journal:

BEITRAGE ZUR GESCHICHTE DER DEUTSCHEN SPRACHE UND LITERATUR

Issue Date:

2016

Abstract(summary):

In spite of growing interest in recent years, the syntax of Middle Low German (MLG) remains an extremely underresearched area. In light of recent research showing early North West Germanic languages to be partial null subject languages (Axel 2005; Walkden 2014; Kinn 2016; Volodina/Weiss 2016), the question arises where MLG is positioned in this respect. The present article presents novel data showing that MLG had referential null subjects (RNS) and can be classified as a partial null subject language. Based on a quantitative and qualitative corpus analysis of their syntactic distribution, we argue that two types of RNS must be distinguished in MLG, null topics in SpecCP and null clitics on C.

Page:

524---559