ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to sharpen our understanding of the EPP, a Principle that requires that every clause have a structural/inflectional subject at S-structure. In the Principles and Parameters theory, expletives directly participate in the EPP phenomenology since they are inserted into the grammatical subject position in order to satisfy the EPP requirement when this position is not filled. Part of the impetus for the reevaluation of this Principle comes from the failure of the original EPP to provide a principled account of the “expletive puzzle”—i.e., the fact that in some Germanic and Celtic constructions, expletives are lacking in the position where they are most expected to occur: the grammatical subject position. In the first part, it is argued that the effects of the classic (syntactic) EPP directly follow from the theory of probe-goal relations, once a unidirectional conception of Agree is adopted. In the second part, it is shown that non-verbal Predication structures force the integration into the theory of an EPP-like Principle, better viewed as a bare output condition imposing an externality requirement at LF on the subject of Predication structures. This analysis, if correct, throws an interesting light on the place of narrow-syntactic processes in the overall architecture of grammar.
