Can structural deficiency be parametrized? Oblique pronouns in old Tuscan varieties

This paper discusses the microvariation in the distribution of deficient pronouns (Cardinaletti and Starke 1999) in old Tuscan texts, in particular of the 3pl dative forms derived from Lat. illorum ‘of those ones’, with the intent to understand if structural deficiency is subject to a predictable parametric variation. The form loro in old Florentine has many properties of the ‘weak’ class, while old Sienese lo’ generally behaves as a clitic; however, both display many other properties which do not fit well into the ‘weak’/’clitic’ categories. It will be argued that the strong/weak/clitic divide is not regulated by specific parameters, but is instead a by-product of changes affecting more general word order properties of sentence structure, as the loss of V2.