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

(54) a. El libro, parece [ IP haberlo comprado Juan en Londres ]
The book seems to-have-it bought J. in London
'That book seems to have been bought by John in London'
b. ??El libro, parece haberlo comprado en Londres Juan
The book seems to-have-it bought in London J.
(55) a. Parece [ IP haberlo escrito Juan ] por la letra 131
Seems to-have-it written J. by the handwriting
'It seems to have been written by John to judge by the handwriting'
b. *Parece haberlo escrito por la letra Juan
Seems to-have-it written by the hndwrng. J.
What 0 shows, is a particular instance of a more general fact: constituents of the
embedded clause cannot be extraposed to the main clause:
(56) a. Ha dit [ CP que donaria el llibre als nois ] avui
Has said that he'd-give the book to-the boys today
'She said that s/he would give the book to the boys today (S/he said it today)
b. **Ha dit [ CP que donaria el llibre ] avui als nois
Has said that he'd-give the book today to-the boys
0.b) and 0.b) do not improve at all if the extraposed element (subject/dative) is heavy,
(provided avui 'today' is actually interpreted as specifying the 'saying' time interval).
It is a trivial matter that the parallelism principles in 0 (for control infinitives) and 0 (for
131 The constituent por la letra should be read as nondislocated,
the interpretation being then, roughly: 'It is the
handwriting that persuades (me) that it has been written by
Joan'
1