Subject doubling in the Slovenian dialect of Resian

Abstract

One of the most curious phenomena that makes the Resian dialect of Slovenian stand out among the Slavic languages is subject doubling. Subject phrases in Resian can be doubled by clitic variants of the personal pronouns. Within Slavic, this is unknown outside the Romance-Slavic contact zone in northern Italy, which is why it is generally explained as a borrowing, most probably from Friulian (Rhaeto-Romance). Despite being such a rarity, studies dealing with subject doubling are scarce, and the phenomenon remains poorly understood. This paper aims at a description of Resian subject doubling, focusing on (1) the types of subject phrases that occur with doubling and (2) the place the subject clitics occupy in clauses with doubling. To identify cases of subject doubling, a recent translation of The Little Prince is used. Comparing potential cases with the French original helps to distinguish instances of subject doubling from instances of left- and right-dislocation. The analysis shows that subject clitics always precede the predicate. Apart from cases with subject-verb inversion, they follow the subject phrase but can be separated from it by adverbials. Partly in line with earlier research, it is observed that, with the exception of interrogatives and indefinite pronouns, all types of subjects (including universal quantifiers) occur with doubling. Moreover, it is shown that the lack of animacy, definiteness, and specificity do not inhibit subject doubling. Finally, subject doubling in Resian is contrasted with the use of subject clitics in Friulian as the language that, most probably, provided the example for Resian subject doubling.