On subject extraction and the antiagreement effect in romance

Abstract

According to Ouhalla's (1993) analysis of the relationship between extracted subjects and subject-verb agreement, all silent-subject languages should show an antiagreement effect when the subject is extracted since a resumptive pro in this position would violate the ADisjointness Requirement. However, languages like Spanish show agreement between the extracted subject and the verb; Ouhalla attributes this, not to the presence of a resumptive pro, but to the lack of short movement of wh-subjects in the syntax. I show that Ouhalla's predictions are wrong regarding Spanish and Fiorentino; that subject extraction in these languages (and in Galegan, Italian, and Piedmontese) proceeds from postverbal position in both embedded and main clauses; and that the antiagreement effect results from the different nature of the expletive subjects licensed in these languages.

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