PROPER GOVERNMENT IN SPANISH SUBJECT RELATIVIZATION

In this paper, we consider the syntax of subject relativization in Spanish, devoting special attention to the role of proper government in restricting the form of such extractions. In particular, we claim that traces of subject relativization may obey the ECP by virtue of being lexically governed by the complementizer que, which inherits the agreement features required to allow it to serve äs a lexical governor by coindexation with the head of the relative construction, that is, through A-agreement, in the typology of complementizers put forward by Rizzi (1990). Thus, for example, only the A-agreeing que renders a well-formed representation, äs in (1), while the A-bar-agreeing null complementizer, which can inherit its licensing features by Specifier-head agreement with the relative pronoun in SpecC, is insufficient to license the subject trace, and hence (2) is ru\ed oux.