The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

215
(84) The analysis of the TC
.
a. ha-sefer Ext [ AP [ A’ kal ] [ leNP li-kri’a]]
assignment Ext. slot Exp, Int. e, Θ SatARB , Ext Th
modification
identification
identification
b. The book Ext is [ AP [ A’ easy ] [ PP Op i to read t i ]]
assignment Ext. slot Exp, Int. e, Θ Sat , Ext
modification
identification
identification
The immediate benefit of this proposal is that it reconciles the noted discrepancy
regarding the status of the subject position in the TC as a thematic position with the
assumption that tough As do not assign an external semantic role. Tough As indeed do
not have an external semantic role, and therefore occur in expletive subject
construction, where the external, non-semantic slot of the tough AP is closed by an
expletive subject, while the internal one is satisfied by an event denoting argument. In
the TC, due to the function of the tough A as a modifier of the predicative constituent
with an external argument slot ( le NP/PP), the complex tough AP does have an external
semantic argument. Consequently the subject position in the TC is a thematic
position.
5.5.1.4 Further evidence: It is possible to negate or elide the whole A- le NP/PP
sequence (85a), (86a), but not the le NP/PP alone (85a), (86b). On the assumption that
the A- le NP/PP sequence is an inseparable (complex) predicate, headed by A, these
facts follow: