Subjects

This chapter deals with two main topics: constituent order (focusing on the interaction between subject positions and interpretation), and null subjects. Both issues relate to case, agreement and expletives. The chapter discusses what motivates and licenses verb-subject orders in Romance non-wh sentences and identifies focalization, theticity and non-degree exclamatives as unifying factors across Romance languages. Focali-zation of the subject derives VOS order, whereas theticity and non-degree exclama-tives display VSO order. On the topic of null subjects, the chapter offers a critical review of the assumption of a pro-drop parameter (also called the Null Subject Pa-rameter) for Romance, considering different types of null subject languages (consistent and partial pro-drop languages). It provides evidence that the pro-drop parameter cannot be maintained as originally formulated since the richness of gram-matical variation between Romance languages requires a more intricate, fine-grained parametrization.