Subject positions, point of view and the neuter pronoun tet in West Flemish

This paper examines the syntax and interpretation of the neuter pronoun tet in West Flemish, which seems to combine the properties of a subject pronoun, a doubling pronoun and a discourse-related particle. We propose that the existence of a speaker creates temporal continuity between the Speech time interval in C and the Event time interval in T. The use of tet in WF creates, in addition, an interaction between the speaker and the subject, which allows the speaker to correct inferences which do not correspond to her point of view at Speech time at the very moment that she “hands over” the temporal control of the sentence to the subject. The data discussed show that the line between C and T is not neatly drawn. Elements typically belonging to TP may impact on C: in our case a subject is picked up by a clitic in C. C-related elements impact on T: in our case Mood affects the spell-out of PovP. In future work we hope to explore other grammatical phenomena which reflect C-T interaction.