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

MSA is revealing in this connection: the post-VP [+anaphoric] I-subject is
unambiguously an anaphoric element: besides being an emphatic I-subject, it can only be used as
a reflexive (it does not have the logophoric usage of, say, English himself). However, when used
as an I-subject, it is unambiguously Nominative. The same can be said of Icelandic SELF
element.
(58) Jón gerdhi thetta sjálfur
J. did that SELFNom
Thus our contention that [+anaphoric] I-subjects (corresponding to what traditionally has
been called emphatic subject anaphors) are Nominative is confirmed by languages having rich
Case morphology, and is tenable for less revealing languages, where we have to challenge the
traditional idea that forms like English himself, French lui(-même) are not Nominative: this idea
would only be correct from the historical point of view.
2.3. Binding Theory
2.3.1. A Definition of Binding Domain
Suppose the Specifier of AGR counts as an A-position for BT, and that in English AGRP
is the Binding Domain for the I-subject. In this language, Spec of AGR always binds the I-
subject as a consequence of choosing the Spec-of-AGR option in 0.c): the I-subject is coindexed
with AGR and, since AGR o agrees, in the unmarked case, with its Specifier, the Specifier binds
the I-subject. Under the BT principles, this predicts that the I-subject can only be anaphoric, as
we have assumed above.
On the other hand, we want to derive the fact that Italian I-subjects are [-anaphoric]. This
result can be achieved if, in NSLs:
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