Complementizer doubling and subject extraction in Italo-Romance
In this article I analyze the complementizer doubling construction attested in some early and modern Italo-Romance
varieties, where a preposed (clausal or non clausal) constituent associated to the selected clause appears in the embedded left
periphery preceded and followed by a subordinating complementizer. While the higher complementizer is uncontroversially
interpreted as a lexicalization of the head Force°, the lower complementizer has been taken to lexicalize either the functional
head Topic° or the functional head Fin°. Relying on previous formal analyses of subject extraction, I argue that in the varieties
in which the lower complementizer lexicalizes Fin°, its presence reflects the lexicalization of the mood features encoded by Fin°,
and is ultimately due to the extraction of the thematic subject out of the embedded clause through Spec,FinP, a movement strategy
made possible by the presence of an expletive pro in the canonical preverbal subject position.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Complementizer doubling in early Italo-Romance
- 3.Splitting the Topic field: Evidence from complementizer tripling
- 4.Complementizer doubling in modern varieties of Italo-Romance
- 5.Subject extraction and criterial constraints in complementizer doubling structures
- 5.1The subject criterion and the mood features of Fin°
- 5.2Fin° as a criterial head
- 5.3Residual issues
- 6.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
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