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Small clauses in Spanish and English

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Summary

I have argued (contra Williams 1983) that SCs are constituents, and (contra Chomsky 1986), Hornstein and Lightfoot 1984, and Kitagawa 1985) that they are projections of their predicates. I have suggested that the simplest version of this approach to SCs implies that S does not have an obligatory subject position, and that what we normally think of as subject of S should be reinterpreted as subject of VP. Finally, I have shown that this approach is compatible with current versions of the Null Subject Parameter, and that it makes possible an account of postverbal subjects in Spanish which is simpler than the standard account.

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Contreras, H. Small clauses in Spanish and English. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 5, 225–243 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166585

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