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

I cannot provide any clear solution for the problem raised by 0. I will only suggest two
possible approaches. We have seen above that a sentence having a null subject can be claimed to
involve a null topic, detectable in cases like 0.b). We have also seen that the null topic is only
present when there is no overt topic: in 0.a), the overt topic ell (mateix) prevents a null topic from
appearing. We said that null topics are licenced when there is a null subject. Suppose we assume
that null topics are licenced whenever a preverbal (non-Focus-fronted) subject is possible: if the
preverbal subject appears (wherever it is dislocated) it acts like a topic. If there is no preverbal
subject, then a null topic appears. Now the contexts allowing preverbal subjects are, in our
theory, either a null I-subject or an emphatic I-subject. Since these are the contexts allowing
preverbal subjects to appear, we can assume that these contexts also trigger a null topic to be
present if there is no preverbal (overt) subject.
Now, we could assume that a FQ has to have an antecedent c-commanding it, and that
the antecedent can be a null topic. This is only a vague approach. We leave the question open of
how FQs are generated and interpreted unexplained. Something in the theory has to guarantee
that FQs are clause-bound, which does not follow from the licensing condition of being bound by
a (possibly maximal scope) topic.
Notice that this approach is close to Rizzi's contention that there is a preverbal pro in his
example 0.b): we also propose there is an empty category. The difference is that the empty
category is not in Spec of INFL (AGR), but rather has maximal scope.
Another solution could consist in adopting Rigau's (1988) proposal about strong
pronouns in Romance languages. According to her, emphatic I-subjects would be strong
pronouns. Strong pronouns, in her theory, are not in A-positions. Then, a possible account for 0
would be:
- FQs are generated in A-position and, in coherence with our approach, in NSLs they are
adjoined to a pro.
- since emphatic strong pronouns are not in A-position, FQs and emphatic strong
pronouns can cooccur.
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