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El presente artículo pretende revisar el uso de los sujetos tácitos en la interlengua de los anglófonos aprendientes de español. Esto es de especial interés puesto que parten de una lengua en la que el parámetro del sujeto nulo está desactivado y aprenden otra con la opción seleccionada. Los diferentes estudios empíricos revelan que los aprendientes de nivel C1 no solo siguen teniendo dificultades, sino que además muestran una evolución negativa. Concretamente, se detectan problemas que influyen en la naturalidad de la producción del aprendiente avanzado. Creemos que el Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes (PCIC) debería fortalecer y ampliar los aspectos vistos en otros niveles, pues a partir del B2 no se introducen nuevos contenidos y, consecuentemente, tampoco lo hacen libros de español C1 que siguen sus directrices.

In this paper, we discuss the evidential properties of inferential interrogative sentences with qué in Spanish. This interrogative type exhibits the shape of a wh-question but the interpretation of a polar question. These sentences have the additional particularity that they are interrogatives with evidential material, which are attested but not frequent crosslinguistically, if compared with declarative evidentials. An interesting consequence of their double interrogative and evidential nature is the fact that both discourse participants have a prominent role in the interpretation of these sentences, as the Speaker makes the inference but the Addressee is requested for confirmation. To account for the construction, we assume a multiple-layered system that includes both Speech Act projection and Finiteness projection. In these two areas we simultaneously find evidential material housing the Speaker's inference, and a raised Addressee in its prominent interrogative position as the participant with the knowledge to provide the requested confirmation of the interrogative's truth value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses root phenomena in imperative clauses, assuming as diagnostics conversational dynamics and the type of discourse categories that are admitted in their C‐domain, through a systematic comparative interface investigation in three languages (English, Italian and Spanish) based on an original experimental work. This novel perspective sheds new light on the syntax‐semantics mapping and the interface (syntax‐prosody) properties of imperative clauses, embedding the relevant proposal in a cartographic framework of analysis. Based on a twofold distinction of root phenomena – those which are widely allowed in Common Ground‐active (Type I) contexts and those which can occur in non‐Common Ground‐active contexts (Type II) – it is proposed that imperatives are non‐Common Ground‐active propositions with no update potential, thus allowing only Type II root phenomena. Syntactically, imperative clauses are dominated by a super‐ordinate Speech Act Phrase, including the Speaker and the Addressee as co‐arguments, which explains the blocking effects identified in imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses root phenomena in imperative clauses, assuming as diagnostics conversational dynamics and the type of discourse categories that are admitted in their C‐domain, through a systematic comparative interface investigation in three languages (English, Italian and Spanish) based on an original experimental work. This novel perspective sheds new light on the syntax‐semantics mapping and the interface (syntax‐prosody) properties of imperative clauses, embedding the relevant proposal in a cartographic framework of analysis. Based on a twofold distinction of root phenomena – those which are widely allowed in Common Ground‐active (Type I) contexts and those which can occur in non‐Common Ground‐active contexts (Type II) – it is proposed that imperatives are non‐Common Ground‐active propositions with no update potential, thus allowing only Type II root phenomena. Syntactically, imperative clauses are dominated by a super‐ordinate Speech Act Phrase, including the Speaker and the Addressee as co‐arguments, which explains the blocking effects identified in imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the acceptability and interpretation of referential null subjects in several varieties of Spanish (both Peninsular and American varieties) in different syntactic contexts (matrix and embedded) and distinct clause types (under bridge verbs, under factive verbs, and in adverbial clauses). Based on the results of an original online survey, completed by almost 300 respondents all over the world, it is shown that, in contrast with a consistent‐pro‐drop language like Italian, some Spanish varieties exhibit partial‐pro‐drop properties; this contributes to a recent line of research dealing with partiality in consistent‐pro‐drop languages. We argue that such variation can be accounted for within an information‐structure approach, in which the Topic Criterion (Frascarelli 2007), the formation of topic chains, and the existence of silent topics play a crucial role. Degrees of partiality are attributed to an interface condition that combines information‐structure requirements with PF visibility of overt copies in topic chains. Partial‐pro‐drop properties can then be explained by reference to independent syntactic conditions, such as the preference for overt minimal links and the sensitivity to islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]