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

(28) a. Els nois han presentat tots dos la sol.licitud
The boys have submitted all two the application
'The boys have both submitted the application'
b. Ja ha presentat tothom la sol.licitud
Already has submitted everybody the application
'Everybody has submitted the application now'
c. Encara no ha presentat ningú la sol.licitud
Yet not has submitted nobody the application
'Nobody has submitted the application yet'
In 0.a) tots dos 'both' is not likely to be an element left by movement, in that it cannot
form a constituent with the preverbal subject (*tots dos els nois). In 0.b/.c) ningú 'nobody' and
tothom 'everybody' cannot be considered floating elements in any reasonable sense: nevertheless,
they have a distribution similar to that of FQ.
In conclusion, we will assume that the basic position for subject is post-VP (or XP) in
Catalan, and that a certain type of elements (FQs and certain single-word quantifiers) can raise to
a higher pre-VP position.
On the other hand, any theory of FQs has to admit that there are several positions for
FQs, as can be seen in 0:
(29) They might (all) have (all) been (all) chatting her up.
Obviously, not all these positions can be in the subject basic position, and possibly none
of them are, inasmuch as FQs cannot occur in VP-final position, which we claim is the subject
basic position:
(30) *They might have been chatting her up all.
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