Strategies of Subject Extraction

Strategies of Subject Extraction Subjects typically are harder to move than objects to a long-distance left peripheral positions; and yet subject extraction is necessary for question formation, focalization, etc. So, natural languages invent structural strategies to make subject movement possible. In this paper we adopt a framework which provides a principled explanation for the constraints on subject movement: it is based on the principle known as Criterial Freezing, and on the idea that the subject position is characterized by special interpretive properties which make it a criterial position, in the sense of Rizzi (1997). We then turn to the kinds of strategies that languages adopt to circumvent the freezing effect and make subject extraction possible: A. Fixed subject strategies, allowing the formation of an A’-dependency without extracting the subject, e.g. by using a resumptive pronoun (Modern Hebrew) or by pied-piping a larger constituent (Imbabura Quechua); B. Skipping strategies, involving the use of some kind of expletive pronominal to fill the freezing positions, and thus permitting the thematic subject to skip it and remain available for movement (French que-qui, special particles licensing subject movement in Scandinavian languages, etc.).