Beyond resumptives and expletives in Akan

Abstract

In Akan, resumption is obligatory for extraction from a subject position. Accordingly, there is usually agreement between the resumptive pronoun (RP) and its referent constituent. However, data from the Asante-Twi dialect suggest that it is possible to have a non-agreeing pronoun in the extraction site. But this is only possible for the highest subject position. In this paper I show that what occupies the subject position in the non-agreeing situation is an instance of the insertion of a default pronoun. Gaps in subject positions are not allowed at all in Akan. In order to avoid violating this constraint in the case of the highest subject, the language has two options; it either uses a resumptive pronoun, or a default pronoun