Aspects of complex predicate formation in Romance

This thesis studies the Romance complex predicate structures formed by Modal and Aspectual (MA) and Causative verbs. The claim made in this thesis is that the composition of infinitival Infl(exion) in the Romance Null Subject Languages (NSL's) is (-Tense,+Agr). The presence of Agr in infinitival Infl will be shown to license verb movement to this position and as a consequence Verb Incorporation. Verb Incorporation will trigger complex predicates with MA verbs. On the other hand, the lack of Agr in the Infl of French infinitival clauses will be claimed to be responsible for the non licensing of complex predicates with MA verbs in this language.Causative verbs will be shown to select a VP infinitival complement clause. This will explain why in French, the same as in the Romance NSL's discussed in this thesis, this type of constructions is licensed; no verb movement to Infl is involved here. V'Reanalysis (Larson 1988) will be shown to be responsible for the complex predicate found in Causative constructions.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio