The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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(70) a. ha-sefer kal/kaše [ leNP li-kri’a ]
the-book easy/difficult to-reading
b. The book is easy/difficult [ PP Op to [ VP read t ]]
.
One of the well-known controversies associated with this construction is the
thematic status of its subject position: Is it a thematic position or a non-thematic
one? 48 In what follows I will address this issue focusing on the properties of the tough
A in general, and on its function in the TC.
5.5.1.1 The tough A: The non-thematic status of the subject position in the TC
is primarily motivated by the existence of the expletive subject construction (71a),
which is taken to indicate that the tough adjective does not have an external argument
(71b). However, by itself, this cannot be considered as conclusive evidence, as there
are predicates, Object Experiencer verbs and adjectives (e.g. worry, annoy), which
also occur in expletive subject construction (72a), but nevertheless, do have an
external argument (72b) (Pesetsky 1987, 1995, Reinhart 2001):
(71) a. It is easy to clean this carpet.
b. *The carpet is easy.
(72) a. It is annoying that Sacha is late.
b. Your cat is annoying.
Note that the ungrammaticality of (71b) may have a different explanation. For
instance, a sentence like His behavior is blue is infelicitous. However, we do not
automatically conclude that blue does not have an external argument, but rather that
blue is incompatible with an argument such as his behavior.
Ordinary APs are modifiers of (nominal) arguments and inherent predicates
(Rothstein 2001). As predicates, APs are assumed to have an open position that has to
48 The thematic status of the subject position was crucial in the previously assumed framework (GB,
Chomsky 1981), where lexical insertion, regulated by the Projection Principle and the Theta-Criterion,
was assumed to result in a syntactic level of representation referred to as the D-Structure. In the
Minimalist framework (Chomsky 1993, 1995) the mentioned controversy is less significant, as no such
level is assumed to exist. Nevertheless, the nature of this position is still an intriguing issue.