Comparative Syntax of the Balkan Languages (Oxford ... - Cryptm.org

58 CARMEN DOBROVIE-SORIN(27)In order to obtain a complex X° constituent we still need a restructuring rule:(28) Adjacent functional X° categories restructure into one X° category.This allows us to characterize Balkan verbal sequences (particle + Neg + CL +Adv + V-Infl) as forming a single complex X heading a single functional projection:(29)6.3. The locality constraintWe are now able to understand why the main clause counts as the governing categoryof the null subject of subjunctives, which is a discontinuous elementformed by an empty category and an Agr element that identifies it, hence the notation(Agr, e), comparable to the (cl, e) notation used for clitic chains (Rizzi1982, Chomsky 1982).In order to determine the governing category of (Agr, e) we must first identifyits governor. A plausible choice is the subjunctive particle itself (again, itsexact label is irrelevant here). But under this hypothesis, the governing categoryof Agr would be the projection of the subjunctive particle, that is, the embeddedsubjunctive clause. This is not the result that we are looking for: in order for thenull subject of the subjunctive to be bound by an element in the main clause, itis the main clause that should count as its goverining category.