Cross-linguistic variation in the syntax of subjects

In this chapter, by focusing on two dimensions of cross-linguistic variation, I discuss the hypothesis that parameters are limited to properties of the functional lexicon, which have an impact on the core computational operations. In one case, variation concerns the probe head and the operation Move: the features which drive verb movement can be associated to different functional heads in the clausal skeleton. In the other case, variation concerns Spell-Out, i.e., the availability of lexical items which spell out syntactic features, an instance of variation which can concern both probes and goals (of the functional type, such as clitic and weak pronouns). The paper discusses examples from Romance and Germanic languages, but the discussed generalizations have a wider cross-linguistic significance.