Reanalysis of Modern Colloquial French Subject Clitics as Agreement Features

Abstract

The verbal morphology of Modern Colloquial French (hereinafter MCFr) has developed a divergent verbal system that has presented many ambiguities in determining the setting of its pro-drop parameter. The transitory nature of the subject clitic in MCFr suggests that the language is at a pivotal state of transition towards a new grammar. The field of syntax is divided on whether or not MCFr subject clitics are true argument-bearing subjects or if they are agreement features akin to conjugation. Historical analyses of this issue suggest that MCFr subject clitics are, in fact, best analyzed as agreement features. Such historical analyses provide insightful observations about the nature of language that often challenge the claims made in the syntactic literature.