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

(125) a. CPs cannot be (directly) Case-marked. CPs can escape being Case-marked by
having recourse to:
- extraposition.
- being associated to an it-expletive.
b. CPs cannot occupy specifier positions at any level of representation.
According to 0.a) two options are available for the CP complement of accept: 100
(126) a. I accept ti [ CP that... ]i (extraposition)
b. I accept iti [ CP that... ]i (it-expletive)
According to 0.b), only the it-expletive option is available for subject CPs:
(127) a. It is evident that...
b. I consider it evident that...
Now consider NSLs. We have claimed that there-expletives do not exist in NSLs. We
also claim that no expletive exists in subject inversion constructions. This is a natural assumption
under the view that such kinds of expletives are merely formal AGR-identifiers, and are not
necessary in languages where Spec of AGR is not he AGR-identifier. It-expletives, on the other
hand, are of a different nature, as we have argued. Since they fulfil the important role of linking
CPs to A-positions, they should be in principle universally available.
Rizzi (1986) argues convincingly that null expletives exist in V-governed positions in
Italian. The essential of his argumentations goes as follows. Some languages (such as Italian)
100 Only the extraposition option is available for the CP
complement of other verbs like say or think. The explanation for
these facts could lie on the different status of subcategorized
CP complements.
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