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

Chapter 5
Preverbal Subjects in NSLs
1. Finite Sentences
There is an important question that remains unanswered in the above theory: what is the
status of preverbal subjects in NSLs? If they are not required as AGR-identifiers, how are they
licenced?
A reasonable position is that specifiers are not always filled: it would at least be difficult
to contend they always are for any category and any well-formed structure (we keep neutral
w.r.t. the issue whether non-filing implies non-projection). The obligatory filling of a given
specifier should rather follow from principles and parameter settings. The above theory
characterizes the requirements on the AGR category in a way that makes Spec of AGR
obligatorily filled only for non-NSLs. So in a sentence like the following (Catalan):
(1) Ho ha fet (en Joan)
It-has done (the J.)
'JOAN/he did it'
Spec of AGR would be empty, at least when the I-subject is an R-expression (en Joan); when it
is empty (pro), it is not logically impossible that Spec of AGR be filled by another empty
category (possibly pro), but the null hypothesis is that it is not.
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