Missing Complement Clause Subjects in Malagasy

Abstract

This paper presents and analyzes a biclausal construction in the Austronesian language Malagasy in which the subject of a complement clause is not expressed but is interpreted as coreferential with a higher noun phrase: Manantena Rabei [mba/fa hividy fiara Øi] 'Rabei hopes that Øi will buy a car.' We show that there are two different structures here depending upon the choice of complementizer. With the complementizer mba, the construction instantiates finite control: an obligatory referential dependency between an unexpressed subject in a finite clause and a higher antecedent. With the complementizer fa, despite some apparent similarities, the construction is not control. We propose instead an NP Drop analysis in which the missing subject is a null pronominal licensed by an independent process of topic drop.