Advances in the Syntax of DPs - Structure, agreement, and case

chapter 6

The structure of null subject DPs

and agreement in Polish impersonal

constructions*

Małgorzata Krzek

Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Thyne

This paper is concerned with the function of the SIĘ particle in the impersonal

construction and with the internal structure of impersonal pronouns in Polish.

It is proposed that SIĘ is a functional element heading its own projection, dubbed

SIĘP, taking pro as its complement. This makes the SIĘP similar to canonical

DPs. As for pronouns, it is argued that they enter the derivation as bundles of

features that get bound by operators and logophoric categories in the course of

the syntactic derivation. Differences in the interpretation of the null impersonal

subject pronoun will depend on the kind of elements its sub-features will be

bound by.

1. Introduction

This paper focuses on two issues. The first issue concerns morpho-syntactic proper-
ties of the null subject DPs in the Polish impersonal SIĘ and –NO/–TO constructions.
The second issue has to do with the internal structure of pronouns and the mechan-
ics of how their interpretation is established. Following Harley and Ritter (2002), it is
proposed that pronouns enter the derivation as bundles of unvalued features that get
valued/bound by operators and logophoric features in the course of a narrow syntactic

* I would like to thank Anders Holmberg, Joel Wallenberg and Peter Ackema for fruitful

discussions at various stages of this work. I would furthermore like to thank Maggie Tall-

erman, Grete Dalmi, Marek Świdziński and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful sug-

gestions and comments on earlier drafts of this paper.