94 ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.
b. ""Molte ne sono arrivate.
"Many of them arrived."
c. Sono arrivate molte ragazze.
"Many girls arrived."
d. Ne sono arrivate molte.
"Many of them arrived."
(83) a. Molte ragazze hanno telefonato.
many girls have telephoned
"Many girls telephoned."
b. * Molte ne hanno telefonato.
"Many of them telephoned."
e. Hanno telefonato molte ragazze.
"Many girls telephoned."
d. *Ne hanno telefonato molte.
"Many of them telephoned."
The facts in (81)-(83) show that both semantic and pragmatic factors are
involved in the analysis of ne. Not all arguments of a verb can be pro-
nominalized with ne\ actors of transitive (81) and intransitive (83) verbs are
excluded. In Van Valin (1990a) it is shown that ne is restricted to state,^53
achievement and accomplishment verbs and that it realizes the lowest rank
ing argument (in terms of the Α-U hierarchy) of the state predicate in the
LS of the predicate in the clause. This explains the restrictions on the argu
ments which can be realized by ne, but it does not account for the contrast
between (82b) and (d). However, given what has been shown about the
interaction of word order and focus structure in Italian, an obvious
hypothesis suggests itself: ne realizes the head of a quantified NP in which
the quantifier must be focal. Since it is a third-person pronoun, it must be
topical, and therefore it must occur preverbally; the quantifier, on the other
hand, is focal and therefore must be postverbal. The split topic-focus prop
erties of this NP can be seen clearly in (84).
(84) Q: Quanti studenti sono venuti alla festa?
how.many students are come to.the party
"How many students came to the party?"
A: Ne sono venuti ventiquattro.
ne are come twenty.four
"Twenty four of them came."