Topic Drop and Null Subjects in German

Contents
1. Overview
	1.1 What this Book is About
	1.2 The Syntax and Semantics of Topic Drop
		1.2.1 The Syntax of Topic Drop
		1.2.2 The Interpretation of Topic Dropped Elements
	1.3 Null Subjects in German
2. Topic Drop in German: (The Lack of) Identity between Antecedent and Gap
	2.1 Introduction
		2.1.1 Topic Drop is Restricted to the Prefield
		2.1.2 General Conditions on Antecedents of Topic Dropped Elements
	2.2 Verbatim and Non-verbatim Topic Drop: Two Kinds of Topic Drop in German
		2.2.1 A First Approach to Verbatim Topic Drop (VTD) and Non-verbatim Topic Drop (NVTD)
		2.2.2 VTD is not ‘Stripping in Disguise’
	2.3 An Empirical Basis for the VTD/NVTD Distinction
	2.4 Structural Well-Formedness Conditions on VTD and NVTD
		2.4.1 Topic Drop and the C- and S-selectional Properties of Predicates
		2.4.2 On the Correlation between Case, Theta Roles and Verbal Semantics
		2.4.3 A Comparison of Synonymous Verbs with Different Case Assignment Properties
	2.5 Topic Drop and the Event Structure of Structural and Oblique Case Assigning Verbs
		2.5.1 Empirical Findings, Hypotheses and Theoretical Assumptions
		2.5.2 Investigation of Events Denoted by Nom/Dat Verbs (in Contrast to Events Denoted by Nom/Acc Verbs)
		2.5.3 Investigation of Events Denoted by Nom/Gen Verbs and Nom/Acc-REFL/Gen Verbs
		2.5.4 Investigation of (Events Denoted by) Three-Place Verbs
	2.6 Topic Drop and the Representation of +/-Complex Events
		2.6.1 The Relation between C-selection and S-selection in the Context of +/-Oblique Case Assignment
		2.6.2 The Syntax of Oblique Case Assignment – Some Introductory Notes
		2.6.3 +/-Oblique Case Assignment (and Topic Drop)
		2.6.4 The Syntactic Representation of +/-Oblique Case Assignment
	2.7 Appendix: Topic Drop of Expletive Elements
3. Topic Drop in German: The Interpretation of the Gap
	3.1 Introduction: (Im-)possible Interpretations of VTD and NVTD Gaps
	3.2 Two Different Kinds of Binding in Topic Drop Dialogues
		3.2.1 The Target Binder is a Referential Expression
		3.2.2 The Target Binder is a Non-referential Expression
		3.2.3 Interim Summary: Referential vs. Non-referential Binding
		3.2.4 The Interpretation of the Reflexive Pronoun sich
		3.2.5 The Interpretation of 1st and 2nd Person (Indexical) Pronouns
	3.3 Survey on Bound Readings of the Gap: A (Better) Empirical Basis
	3.4 The Representation of the Gap
		3.4.1 Binding in Topic Drop Dialogues: Empirical Findings
		3.4.2 Binding in Topic Drop Dialogues: Some Theoretical Considerations
		3.4.3 The Identification and Licensing of pro
4. Null Subjects at the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface
	4.1 Introduction: (Antecedent-Independent) Null Subject Omission in German
	4.2 Well-Formedness Conditions on Antecedent-Independent Null Subjects
		4.2.1 Empirical Investigations of German and Other (Non-)Null Subject Languages
	4.3 More on the Identification/Licensing of Null Subjects (in German)
		4.3.1 Independent Evidence for the Assumed Identification/Licensing Conditions on Null Subjects
		4.3.2 Positional Licensing of ‘Out of the Blue Drop’ (OBD) and the Empty Category Associated with OBD
		4.3.3 OBD in Embedded V2 Clauses
		4.3.4 Non-Prefield Null Subjects in German
		4.3.5 German – a Partial Null Subject Language (?)
References
Index