In this paper we focus on pronominal subject doubling in three southern Dutch dialects. We first argue that, contrary to what is generally assumed, there is not one, but two types of pronominal doubling in these dialects. More specifically, we show that the type of doubling found in subject-initial main clauses differs from that in subclauses and inverted main clauses. The latter is commonly referred to as clitic doubling, the former we dub topic doubling. The remainder of the paper is concerned with giving an analysis of these two phenomena, while at the same time explaining their distribution across sentence types. In so doing, we will take a closer look at the left periphery of the dialects under consideration, arguing on the basis of the distribution of object clitics that subject clitic placement is a narrow syntax phenomenon that should be analysed in a split-CP structure in the sense of Rizzi (1997). Topic doubling on the other hand involves the base-generation of a full DP subject in a left peripheral topic position, the argument position being filled by the doubling strong pronoun.
Throughout this paper we will be working in the framework outlined in Kayne (1994). This means that in our analyses rightward movement, right-adjunction and multiple specifiers (i.e. multiple adjunction) are disallowed.
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