Expletive and Referential Subject Pronouns in Medieval French (Linguistische Arbeiten, 556)

This book is an empirical study on the expression of subject pronouns in Medieval French, usually analyzed as a null subject language. In light of the frequent expression of expletives, i.e. subject pronouns in impersonal constructions, as well as of referentials, it is argued that rather than from a null subject property, the non-expression of subject pronouns generally follows from conditions pertaining to left-peripheral focalization.