Phi-features and the Modular Architecture of - UMR 7023 - CNRS

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c. Tabs/agents-NOM are believed [to have been kept __ on you].
It is possible to posit suitably vacuous content to expletives and idiom chunks
and then formulate interpretive requirements that include it (Chomsky 1981: 37,
1986b: 212 note 71). However, their behavior suggests rather that there is no interpretive
motivation for their Agree/Case relations, outside the need to delete syntactic
features illegible to LF (cf. sections 5.4, 5.9).
The argument from idiom chunks is one of several that can be put forward to
show a divorce between syntactic and interpretive notions for [+person]. The clitic
equivalent of idiom chunks is inherent clitics, like those in (387). They are fixed
parts of locutions. Unlike argumental clitics, they cannot be replaced by another
clitic or nonclitic, or doubled by a nondislocated focus or dislocated elements.
(387) Examples of inherent (idiomatic) clitics in French:
a. 3SGM.ACC le: l'emporter 'win', lit. 'take it/him away'
b. 3SGF.ACC la: la bailler belle 'tell a tall tale', lit. 'give her beautiful'
c. Reflexive se: s'attaquer à 'attack', lit. 'attack oneself to'
d. LOC y: y aller fort 'overdo it', lit. 'go there strong'
e. GEN en: en vouloir à 'be upset with', lit. 'want of.it to'
f. SE se+GEN en: s'en prendre à 'take it out on', lit. 'take oneself to'
Despite their idiomatic character, these clitics behave like others of their form
for the PCC (section 4.3). Inherent le/la 3SGM/F.ACC freely combine with dative
clitics. By contrast, the inherent reflexive se falls under the PCC, like all reflexive
se in French. In (388) and (389), the PCC prevents reflexive se from combining
with a dative clitic (italics). Instead, the dative appears as a strong pronoun (underlined),
licensed by the PCC repair (see Bonet 1991: 193 note 16 for Catalan).
(388) Elle vit dans un apart avec deux chatsi
a. sans se leur en prendre.
b. sans s' en prendre à euxi.
without SE them.DAT GEN take to them
She lives in an appartment with two cats without taking it out on them.
(French)
(389) a. Jeani se lui est attaqué à luii, pensant s'attaquer aux autres.
b. Jeani s' est attaqué à luii, pensant s'attaquer aux autres.
Jean SE has attacked to him, thinking to attack others
(French, Morin 1978: 357; see section 4.4)
It seems then that inherent se bears the [+person] feature. Morphologically,
this is unsurprising, since inherent se looks exactly like the true reflexive clitic se,
which is [+person] for the PCC. It assumes the appropriate form according to the
person of the subject in Table 6.2: 3SG se in (388), 1SG me in Je m'en prends à 'I
take it out on', 2SG te in Tu t'en prends à, and so on. Interpretively however, it is
hard to see what properties inherent se shares with 1 st /2 nd person to the exclusion