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

7. Summary
In this chapter we have advanced a theory for deriving Burzio's Generalization and
characterizing the status of the Null Subject Phenomenon. Concerning the former, we have
proposed some parameters for accounting for impersonal constructions in languages like German
on one hand, and for Ergative languages on the other hand.
Concerning the Null Subject phenomenology, this theory tries to minimize the
differences between NSLs and (non)-NSLs: all languages have some form of null subjects and
subject inversion, the difference lying in the [±anaphoric] character of both.
Our theory crucially relies on the properties of AGR, which we claim are universal
(modulo some parameters concerning Ergative Languages and the presence of phi-features in a
given language), and can be conceived of as instances of licensing principles.
This formulation led us to revise Binding Theory and Case Theory. We have provided
some independent motivation for our revision of Binding Theory (anaphoric copulative
constructions).
The strong requirements AGR imposes under our characterization of the facts led us to
consider whether the ECP should be the appropriate means of constraining A-movement. We
noticed that there is potential redundancy between the ECP account and our account, and that we
could eliminate this redundancy by reducing the power of our rules for AGR.
We have also addressed a variety of empirical problems (inverted Copulative
constructions, French Stylistic Inversion, Northern Italian dialects, etc.) and theoretical problems
(Minimality, Chain formation, etc.) in a rather speculative and often inconclusive way: it could
not be otherwise, given the wide range of implications the present thesis is involved in.
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