ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of the status of post-verbal subjects in other Romance languages such as Catalan, French, and Italian. Catalan, Italian, and French lack the derivation that yields the possibility of having the subject in neutral position in Spanish. The only derivation left out in these languages must be what is responsible for all the restrictions in the distribution of subjects. Catalan, French, and Italian, contrary to Spanish, lack a Neutral Phrase position between TP and VP. The analysis using focus of the subject and light predicate raising of the TP has the advantage of explaining why there are restrictions as what can follow the post-verbal subject. This is important because of the existence of constraints shared by all the languages examined. In none, for instance, could determinerless DPs, INFs, adjectives, or de-adjectival adverbials follow a focused subject.
