Abstract
This paper deals with the role of third person subject pronouns in metalinguistic activities on grammar in Italian schools. Two different aspects are discussed. The first deals with the use of obsolete pronominal forms, which have a very restricted distribution in use despite the fact that normative schoolbooks still present them as the unmarked choice. These forms are used in responses to the metalinguistic tasks proposed to a large sample of pupils and students within a project on the notion of syntactic subject and its recognition in texts. Pronouns seem to work here as formal markings of verb persons. The second point regards strategies employed by respondents to name subjects within a dialogic text; in particular pronominal strategies, in contrast with the presence of full NPs in the text, are discussed in the paper.