A closer look at (lack of) obviation phenomena in Romanian subjunctive complements
A closer look at (lack of) obviation phenomena in Romanian subjunctive complements

Summary/Abstract: The paper looks at Romanian subjunctive complements selected by volitional verbs and considers the interpretation of their null subjects and why – unlike the case of other Romance languages – these can co-refer with a main clause antecedent (what has been called “lack of obviation” in the literature). What we want to show (against claims made by Roussou 2001 and Landau 2004) is that null subject ca-subjunctives in Romanian do not trigger obviation (disjoint subjects) and that obviation effects in such contexts can appear not because of ca, but in cases where the subject of the subjunctive complement is an overt 3rd person pronoun whose phi-features match those of the main clause subject. Supporting evidence for the different interpretation of null vs. overt pronouns comes from Reinhart’s (1999, 2000) variable binding vs. co -valuation (Rule I) and Ariel’s (1991, 1994) Accessibility Theory.

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