Abstract
AbstractThe chapter revolves around the notion of deficiency. It is a widely held view that clitics do not have the same distribution as strong pronouns because the former have a deficient inner structure (Cardinaletti and Starke 1999 amond others). By the same token, languages display an intermediate class of weak pronouns, sharing properties of clitic and strong pronouns. The hypothesis of an intermediate class is particularly attractive for a diachronic analysis, as weak elements are the cornerstone of the evolution from strong pronouns to clitics. This chapter provides an in-depth discussion of the status of weak elements with a twofold intent: first, to show that weak pronouns do not form a consistent class across languages and second, to challenge the hypothesis that deficient elements are obtained when the outer structural layer of strong pronouns peels off.
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