CLAUSE STRUCTURE AND RECONSTRUCTION IN CLLD STRUCTURES IN SPANISH

In this talk, I point out some empirical problems with a well known generalization in Spanish regarding reconstruction in clitic left dislocation structures (CLLD) and I try to revise the generalization in (1), reported in Spanish by Zubizarreta (1998: 114-115, ex. 38): (1) Asymmetry pre/postverbal subjects with respect to CLLD “A clitic left dislocated object can reconstruct below the preverbal subject, but not below the postverbal subject.” In the paradigm below, the pronoun su contained in the accusative CLLD can be bound by the QP subject in preverbal position (see (2)a), but not by the QP subject in postverbal position (see (2)b), suggesting reconstruction of the dislocated DP in the first situation, but not in the second situation: (2) a. A sui hijo, cada madrei deberá acompañar=loi el ACC her child each mother must:3FUT accompany:INF=ACC the primer día de escuela. first day of school “Each mother must accompany her child on the first day of school.” b.?*El primer día de escuela, a sui hijo deberá the first day of school ACC her child must:3FUT acompañar=loi cada madrei accompany:INF=ACC each mother However, the acceptability of these structures seems to be affected by several factors such as the use of generic tense and modals with cada as a binder, the role of the type of verb involved and the quality of the QP binder/the bindee. Empirically, the generalization in (1) requires a more careful examination in light of the recent discussion in the field about the syntax of preverbal and postverbal subjects. With respect to the nature of preverbal subjects, recent work by Suñer (2003), and Beas (2007) have claimed that preverbal subjects in Spanish correspond to two different patterns: a canonical pattern and a dislocation pattern. The table in (3) summarizes the salient properties of each type