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Icelandic case-marked PRO and the licensing of lexical arguments

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Abstract

On the basis of evidence from Icelandic I argue that PRO can be both governed and case-marked, but crucially not properly governed. Lexical arguments must be both case-marked and properly head governed, and proper head government is a strictly local relation whereas case-marking is not. As the subject position of PRO clauses is not properly head governed, it must not be lexicalized, irrespective of whether it is case-marked or not.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Linguistics, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavík, ICELAND

    Halldór Ármann Sigurdsson

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  1. Halldór Ármann Sigurdsson
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For valuable comments and discussions that have contributed to this work, many thanks to four NLLT reviewers and to Cecilia Falk, Anders Holmberg, Norbert Hornstein, Joan Maling, Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson, Kjartan G. Ottósson, Christer Platzack, Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson and Höskuldur Thráinsson. The key idea pursued here, that lexicalized A-positions must be licensed by proper head government, first emerged out of discussions with Anders Holmberg and Cecilia Falk and correspondance with Norbert Hornstein.

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Sigurdsson, H.Á. Icelandic case-marked PRO and the licensing of lexical arguments. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 9, 327–363 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00134679

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