Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

In Chapter 4 we will use Chain-extension in another construction: raising in NSLs.
In the preceding chapter we saw that Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) had the peculiarity
of having two 'inverted subject' positions (which can in fact cooccur):
anaphoric].
- one which is post-VP (it follows the complements) and is [+anaphoric].
- one which is pre-VP (it precedes the complements, pace V-movement) and is [-
(57) 'Amala Yusuf/huwa al 'amal nafsuhu
Did Y. /he the work he-SELF
'Yusuf/he did the work himself'
For theoretical reasons that will be clear in the next section, we will assume that the latter
position (Yusuf/huwa) is the one receiving Case by government, while the former (nafsuhu)
receives case via Chain-transmission from the other. For some reason, then, AGR o in MSA is
able to assign Case to only one of the positions, namely the higher one.
Let us address another question. We claimed that the I-subject obtains Case from its
AGR-identifier, so that, at least in finite clauses, the I-subject is Nominative. Perhaps nobody
would challenge the claim that I-subjects in NSLs (i.e., inverted subjects) are Nominative. This is
not so clear for what we claim are I-subjects in non-NSLs (himself, soi-même in French, etc.), for
they have the same morphological shape as when these elements are used as object or oblique
reflexive elements.
We will assume, however implausible it may look at first glance, that these elements are
not Accusative or Oblique. They are rather morphologically Case-neutral, (as all full DPs are in
these languages). The only morphological Case distinction in these languages lies in Nominative
pronominals, all other forms (including anaphors) being Case neutral. In Chapter 4 we will go
further to suggest that Nominative pronouns in languages like French or English are forms
specific to Spec of AGR.
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