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In this paper, we consider data from a number of English dialects in which the distribution of pronouns and verb inflection differs radically from that in standard English. In these dialects, pronouns adjacent to the verb occur with an uninflected form of the verb, at least for some types of subjects and some subset of verbs. Pronouns that are separated from the verb or immediately follow it, on the other hand, occur with an inflected verb form. We provide an analysis of these constructions within lexical-functional grammar (LFG) in which the pronouns occurring with the uninflected form are analyzed as pro-clitics to the verb. Given this analysis of pronouns as verbal inflection, the constructions in which they occur lack an overt subject and can hence be referred to as "pro-drop" constructions. We examine a property that has frequently been associated with pro-drop languages -the COMP-trace effect -but find the link between the two properties too weak to be relevant to our discussion. Finally, we consider briefly the implications of the LFG analysis of this phenomenon for diachronic aspects of the data.

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In the light of current morphological theory, this paper examines the analogical levelling of long/short vowel oppositions in certain inflectional and derivational alternations in a number of modern Swiss German dialects. The regular occurrence of levelling is shown to depend on the extent to which the alternation in question is ‘perceptually salient’ (Chapman 1994). That is, if the semantic relation between base and derivative is transparent and the derivative is uniformly marked, analogical levelling occurs regularly. On the basis of this evidence it is argued that all morphological alternations, both inflectional and derivational, are listed in the lexicon and that each one is assigned a different status according to its degree of perceptual salience.

This paper presents diachronic evidence from four modern German dialects against Anderson's (1982) formal dichotomy between inflection and derivation, otherwise known as the ‘Split Morphology Hypothesis’ (SMH). It examines the relative productivity of analogical umlaut rules (i.e. the analogical fronting of back vowels in morphologically complex forms leading to the creation of new ‘phonemes’) in a number of inflectional and derivational categories and demonstrates that these rules are either (i) productive in inflection and derivation, (ii) productive in inflection and diminutive nouns but sporadic in derivation or (iii) productive only in diminutive nouns. As a marker of noun plurals, analogical umlaut is lexically conditioned. On the basis of this evidence, it is argued that the productivity of analogical umlaut is determined by semiotically‐based parameters, including the semantic transparency of the relation between base and derivative and the uniformity and transparency of the formal means used to mark morphologically complex forms, all of which interact to determine the overall perceptual saliency of particular alternation types.