Subject Licensing in CP: The Neapolitan Double-subject Construction

This chapter explores the question of whether the core IP-related property of subjecthood finds any formal reflex within the C-system and, if so, what the precise nature and location of the functional projection involved is, and under what conditions such marking of the subject is licensed within CP. In particular, evidence is adduced from the southern Italian dialect of Naples, and some other surrounding dialects of the Campania region, to support the idea that under specific pragmatico-syntactic conditions the subject of predication (feature) primarily licensed within the I-space can be correlatively marked at the C-level in a construction henceforth referred to as the double-subject construction. Significantly, the data to be examined highlight how the relevant facts under consideration can only be satisfactorily accommodated within a split-CP perspective, according to which the complementizer phrase is conceived of as a richly-articulated space hosting a number of diverse functional projections.