Wide-focus subject-verb inversion in Ibero-Romance: A locative account

• Main Author: Alice Corr
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2016-06-01
• Series: Glossa
• Subjects: subject-verb inversion; Ibero-Romance languages; null subject parameter; locative inversion; word order
• Online Access: http://www.glossa-journal.org/articles/85

This paper explores the hypothesis that wide-focus subject-verb inversion in Ibero-Romance is a type of locative inversion, involving a null locative argument. Ibero-Romance displays fine-grained, systematic variation determined by verbal class and variety, offering evidence that Ibero-Romance neutral word order is SVO, rather than VSO as claimed by some null-subject accounts. It is proposed that ‘locative’ subject-verb inversion is a consequence of grammatically-encoded deictic features correlating with the semantic properties of the verbs involved. The locative element, available unequally across Ibero-Romance, can surface in different positions in the left periphery, yielding the variation encountered. The data indicate that the licensing of these constructions depends neither on the null-subject parameter, since this type of inversion also occurs in non- and partial null-subject varieties, nor on the unaccusative/unergative division, though in both cases a degree of correspondence exists.