THE SUBJECT OF THE SUPINE CLAUSE IN ROMANIAN AND A-CHAINS

Abstract

After a brief presentation of the Romanian data regarding the lexical subject of non-finite verbal forms and the types of control allowed in Romanian, the author discusses supine configurations with controlled covert subjects and with lexical overt subjects. The lexical subject is very limited from a syntactic point of view: it can only appear in supine relative clauses and in tough-constructions with a passive embedded supine. Apparently, in these configurations the supine assigns Case. In Romanian control structures, the overt subject can be lexicalized in different slots in the main clause or in the embedded clause, a fact which raises problems for most of the current approaches to control. After reviewing the main theoretical proposals, the author concludes that the most appropriate theory for these problematic data is the one put forth by Alboiu (2007) for the Romanian subjunctive, i.e. the position of the lexical subject in control configurations is determined by pragmatic factors. The comparison between the subjunctive control configuration and the supine control configuration shows that these two constructions apparently follow the same rules. Although pragmatics is the key-notion for the choice of the slot of the lexical subject, we are far from understanding the exact relation between pragmatic effects and the position of the lexical subject.

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