Centering in Italian

This chapter explores the correlation between centering and different forms of pronominal reference in Italian, in particular zeros and overt pronouns in subject position. In previous work (Di Eugenio, 1990), I proposed that such alternation could be explained in terms of centering transitions. In this chapter, I verify those hypotheses by means of a small corpus of naturally occurring data. In the process, I extend my previous analysis in several ways, for example by taking possessives into account; I also provide a more detailed analysis of continue: more specifically, I show that pronouns are used in a markedly different way in continue’s preceded by another continue or by a shift, and in continue’s preceded by a retain.