Subjects in a pro-drop language. Syntactic roles, discourse categories and the interpretation of pro

The Null Subject parameter and general economy requirements might lead to the expectation that, in a pro-drop language like Italian, overt subjects are only realized to guarantee recoverability in the discourse. However, the study of spoken corpora shows that this is not the case: overt subjects are often realized, even when coreference interpretation is not at stake. This paper shows that the analysis of intonation in an interface perspective can provide a novel account to the presence and interpretation of subjects in a pro-drop language. In particular, evidence is provided for a crucial connection between “subjects” and “left-peripheral” information. This proposal also leads to an alternative explanation for the licensing and interpretation of null subjects (pro’s).