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Hypercomplex Inversion and the Status of Expletive Pronouns

  • Richard S. Kayne EMAIL logo
From the journal Probus

Abstract

French hypercomplex inversion can be used as a probe into the question whether or not the language faculty countenances the existence of true expletive pronouns, i.e. pronouns that make no interpretive contribution of any kind. The conclusion is that there are no expletive pronouns (in any language) in the strict sense of the term.


Corresponding author: Richard S. Kayne, New York University, New York, USA, E-mail:

I am grateful to Guglielmo Cinque, Andrea Moro, Jean-Yves Pollock and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.


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Published Online: 2022-12-19
Published in Print: 2023-05-25

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