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

linked to an it-expletive, which does not transmit Case to its associated CP. 101
One question we could address is where the CP linked to the expletive is attached to.
Non-dislocated sentential CP I-subjects seem to occupy a VP-final position. When a CP is a
subject of Small Clauses (as in 0), it also occupies a Small-Clause-final position. The underlying
place of attachment of the CP should not be far removed from the underlying position occupied
by the it-expletive it is linked to. Therefore, the fact that the CPs in 0 are steadily Small-Clause-
final seems to suggest that this is also the basic position for the it-expletive.
In other words, we suggest that:
- Small clauses have some FC structure which provides the specifier for Small-Clause
subjects preceding the predicate.
(130) I consider [ XP John [ X' [ AP intelligent ] ] ]
- The underlying position for Arguments of a predicate is always to the right of the
predicate (this is true for any lexical category being a predicate, in both clauses and Small
Clauses).
- Therefore, the underlying position for it-expletives (and their CP, which stands
nearby) is to the right of the predicate even in Small Clauses: this is why, even if the it expletive
moves to a FC specifier, the CP remains in SC-final position.
(131) I consider [ XP iti [ X' [ AP strange ti that...] ] ]
- If this analysis for Small clauses is correct, we predict other types of I-subjects,
101 Our proposal, then, is that it-CP CHAINS are the only
type of CHAINS which are available in all languages: there-
Partitive CHAINS are only used in non-NSLs, and nullexpletive/inverted-subject
CHAINS do not exist.
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