Configurational properties and aspect constraints: The deficient ca in Swiss French

This paper argues that the feature specification of a Swiss French deficien t ca accounts for its syntactic distribution. Contrary to the ordinary accu sative clitics Ic, la, Ics, this pronominal form lacks number, gender and C ase feature, but has a temporal-aspectual locative feature. The arguments t hat support ca's caselessness are based on the following diagnostic: (i) th e impossibility of doubling the deficient Ea, (ii) the impossibility of ca being an enclitic and (iii) its interaction with topicalisation and right d islocation which differs from what can be observed with ordinary clitics in this context. Another distinction in the feature make-up of ca vs. ordinar y clitics is the ambiguous categorical status of Sa as both D and DP. As a result of its feature composition, ca requires generic event quantification . This interpretation is always available with transitive eventive verbs bu t with unaccusatives and transitive statives, the reading is blocked in the present tense. It is demonstrated that the aspectual non-ambiguity of the Swiss French deficient ca, i.e. the fact that it can only appear in context s of generic event quantification, is responsible for ungrammatical sequenc es such as "Je ca aime ('I that like') in this grammar. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.