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

2.4. The Split INFL Hypothesis and Verb Movement
We will be assuming a version of the split-INFL hypothesis, specifically one in which
AGRP dominates TP, as in Belletti (1991). The structure of the sentence is as in 0:
(34) [ AGRP ...[ TP ...[ VP ] ] ]
where other possible FCs (such as NEGP and Object-AGRP) are omitted. 13 For the contention
that AGR is higher than T in the hierarchy, I adhere to the motivation presented in Belletti (1991)
(the Mirror Principle effects for verbal tense and AGR affixes, the plausibility that the subject
occupies Spec of AGRP and not that of TP, etc.).
My working hypothesis throughout Chapters 2 to 4 will be that the hierarchy in 0 is
uniform across languages (or at least the languages I will be considering): this will facilitate the
discussion of the contrast between NSL and non-NSLs by minimizing the parametric factors of
variation. In Chapter 5, however, we will explore the alternative view that the FC hierarchy is
parameterized in a minimal way (concerning only two FCs), this parameterization being tightly
related to the Null Subject parameter.
One of the facts our theory will be concerned with is V o -movement. The general fact is
that NSLs seem to exhibit longer V o -movement than some non-NSLs. This will be a natural
consequence of our theory, although we will not be able to predict the exact details of V o -
movement.
Specifically, two facts will naturally follow from our theory:
13 See Pollock (1989), Chomsky (1988), Belletti (1991), Laka
(1990) for some well-known proposals on the issue. See Chomsky
(1992) for a proposal on object AGR.
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