Traditionally, subject licensing has been linked to the presence of agreement. From that point of view, Spanish infinitives are not supposed to have overt subjects since they do not have any agreement. However, overt subjects occur in Spanish whenever the infinitive is ungoverned, (Lagunilla, 1987; Hernanz, 1999). This thesis focuses on the licensing of these overt subjects and the occurrence of these subjects and PRO in the same contexts. After reviewing previous analyses, Lagunilla (1987), Suner (1994), Torrego (1998) and Rigau (1995). I claim that: (i) Spanish infinitives have abstract agreement (Rigau, 1995; Torrego, 1998); (ii) there is an agreement absorption mechanism that prevents governed infinitives from having agreement. In this proposal, only ungoverned infinitives would have agreement. I take Alexiadou and Anagnostopoulou's (1998) assumptions on the EPP in Spanish to show that my approach is consistent with an account of the distribution of PRO as EPP-driven (Harley, 2000).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/292060 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Ortega-Santos, Iván |
| Contributors | Olarrea, Antxon |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | Spanish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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