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

why infinitives in NSLs allow long head-movement. On the other, it presents an alternative
conception of the notion of infinitival sentence, according to which infinitives in a given
language are a 'simplified' version of the finite sentence structure in that language: the missing
AGR-morphology is recovered in content in some way (control being the most typical strategy),
or it is entirely absent.
Finally, Chapter 5 is devoted to preverbal subjects in NSLs. If the theories in the
preceding chapters are on the right track, the question arises as to whether preverbal subjects in
NSLs are of the same nature as in non-NSLs (for the latter we assume that (preverbal) subjects
occupy the Specifier of AGRP). We will show that the classical test for subjecthood vs.
dislocation (namely, only true subjects can be quantified) is not as clear cut as has often been
claimed. Our conclusions point to the idea that preverbal subjects in NSLs can (besides being
dislocated) be in a functional specifier which is not exclusively occupied by subjects.
2. Some Basic Premises
2.1. The Internal Subject Hypothesis
We assume some version of the Internal-Subject Hypothesis (ISH) as advanced in
Koopman and Sportiche (1988)/(1990). This hypothesis has also been developed in some way in
Zagona (1982), Kitagawa (1986), Speas (1986), Contreras (1987), Kuroda (1988), and,
specifically for Catalan, in Bonet (1989).
The essential idea of this hypothesis is that the External Argument (EA) is generated
inside the VP (as in 0.a)) or as an adjunct to the VP (as in 0.b)):
(1) a. [ VP JohnAg [ V' put the bookTh on the tableGoal ] ]
b. [ VP JohnAg [ VP put the bookTh on the tableGoal ] ]
1