On the Nature of the Impersonal SE: Why Italian is not like Catalan and Spanish

Abstract

I argue that impersonal se is bound by empty pronouns in Catalan, Spanish and Italian. The impersonal pronouns always receive nominative case (contra Dobrovie-Sorin C. Linguistic Inquiry 29: 399–347, 1998) since they trigger Differential Object Marking (DOM), allow bare DP objects, and are incompatible with dative experiencer psychological verbs. In the second part of the paper I examine the interpretative properties of the empty pronominals. On the one hand, these constructions allow generic and existential interpretations, and I attribute them to an empty pronoun ϕ as in Holmberg (Holmberg A. The null generic subject pronoun in Finnish: A case of incorporation in T. Parametric variation: Null subjects in minimalist theory. Biberauer T, Holmberg A, Roberts I, Sheehan M. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 200–230, 2010) and Mendikoetxea (Mendikoetxea A. Transactions of the Philological Society 106: 290–336, 2008). However, I argue that Italian has an additional interpretation of impersonal se as first person plural WE (D’Alessandro R. Impersonal SI constructions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2007). Thus, I assume that Italian has a WE/ϕ pronoun, but Catalan and Spanish only have a ϕ pronoun. This double nature of impersonal se in Italian is parallel to what is found in other languages such as French on. Finally, I show that certain unexamined differences between se in Catalan and Spanish on the one hand, versus Italian, on the other, can be explained under this new approach.