A Syntactic Study of the Left Periphery and the Peculiarities of Subjects

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The results of our study can be summarized as follows. First, assuming Rizzi’s (1997) cartographic analysis of the clausal left periphery, we have proposed a new analysis of the syntactic positions of non-nominal subjects (i.e. CP and PP) as well as their licensing conditions. Second, under the assumption that Rizzi’s (1997) cartographic analysis is applicable to nominal categories (i.e. DPs) as well as clausal categories (i.e. CPs), we have argued that the structural positions of genitive nouns in DP differ with respect to their grammatical functions. We have also shown that this proposal helps explain the acquisition data as well as the cases in which WH-phrases move out of (subject and object) DPs.Third, we have argued against Chomsky’s (1986) Vacuous Movement Hypothesis on the basis of empirical data.