The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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.
Following Higginbotham (1985), modification is analyzed as identification of
the semantic argument of the modifier and that of the modifiee, closing the involved
arguments. For the TC this will mean that the (internal) semantic argument of the
tough A is identified with the semantic e argument of the le NP/PP. In this sense then,
the event denoted by the le NP/PP is interpreted as the attribute of the adjective, the
dimension along which the difficulty or the easiness is graded.
I propose further that as the result of the modification, the tough A and the
leNP/PP form a complex tough AP predicate. Recall that the le NP/PP constituent has
an external argument slot; the externalized internal theta-role of the nominal in
Hebrew (Theme) or that of the verb in English. Upon complex predicate formation,
this slot is identified with the external slot of the tough A and is closed by assignment
to the subject of the construction. 57
The tough A, in addition to its semantic argument, which is assigned to an event
denoting constituent, has the so-called Experiencer argument. As already mentioned,
in the TC the Experiencer and the saturated argument of the le NP/PP are necessarily
coreferential, as opposed to a non-TC, where a subject different from the Experiencer
can be introduced (83):
(83) a. Hard work is easy for the rich (*for the poor) to do.
b. It is easy for the rich (for the poor) to do the hard work.
(Chomsky 1977)
On the assumption that the complex predicate formation triggers identification
of the Experiencer of the tough A with the saturated argument of the le NP/PP (Θ Sat ),
this is accounted for. 58 The complex AP predicate analysis of the TC is illustrated in
(84):
57 The mechanism assumed to underlie complex predicate formation in the TC is theta-identification
(Neeleman 1994), rather than theta-combination (Ackema 1995).
58 For alternative accounts to this effect see Koster 1984, Kim 1996.