On the structural positions of the subject in Spanish, their nature and their consequences for quantification

This paper presents a study of the structural positlons that the subject can occupy at S-Strucrure in Spanish, their nature and the set of implications that the location of the subject in such positions has for a wide range of quantificational phenomena. 1 I first discuss the Obligatory Inversion Rule proposed in Torrego (1984) and the VSO sequences attributed to its application, arguing for a distinction of two different processes and the dissociation of this rule from successive cyclicity. Based on the discussion in section 1, I then study the nature of the two positions available for the subject in Spanish, SPECNP and SPEc/IP, arguing for the characterization of SPEC/IP as an A' -positionjn that language. On the basis of the different nature of these positions, an explanation is given for the asymmetric behaviour displayed by subject quantifiers that depends on whether this element occupies the preverbal or the postverbal position at S-Structure. The analysis will also prove to be valid to account for some contrasts in scope displayed by quantified subjects in English and Spanish, extending moreover to explain some preverbal quantified subject/quantified adjunct asymmetries in Spanish. The location and scope possibilities of Whsubjects in Spanish will be also captured in a unified way. Section 3. further shows that the structural position of the subject affects Wh-ex-