Chapter published in:
Complement Clauses in Portuguese: Syntax and acquisition
Edited by Ana Lúcia Santos and Anabela Gonçalves
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 17] 2018
► pp. 129–186

Controlled overt pronouns as specificational predicates

| Universidade of Minho, CEHUM
Szabolcsi (2009) shows that there are languages where control and raising infinitives have overt subjects, in compliance with (1):
(1)
a.
The overt subjects of control complements can only be pronouns.
b.
The overt subjects of raising complements can be pronouns or lexical DPs.
Drawing on data from European Portuguese (as well as Spanish and Italian) we show that the evidence underlying (1) constitutes a strong case in favor of a non-raising approach to obligatory control. Relying on the observation that many consistent Null Subject Languages (NSL) allow for explicit subjects in raising and control complements, we develop an account that aims to capture the association between this phenomenon and the null subject property.
Keywords: infinitival complements, control, raising, null subject language, exhaustive focus
Published online: 16 August 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.17.05bar
References

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