Elements of Control: Structure and Meaning in Infinitival Constructions

ISBN-13: 9781402002939 / Angielski / Miękka / 2001 / 215 str.

Idan Landau

Opis

1. THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS OF CONTROL Imagine you are a child faced with the daunting task of acquiring the grammar of control in your language. You toddle around buoyantly (you should be past 3 by now), occasionally bumping into acoustic signals that miraculously map to "linguistic input." Some of them sound like this: (1) a. Robin, do you want _ to play with Kittie together? b. Come on, let me show you how _ to feed her. c. No Robin, Kittie doesn't like _ to be smacked. d. Robin, look what you've done Bad boy Time _ to go to bed. From your shelter under the kitchen table, you may draw the following conclusions: i) Mommy is very mad now; ii) Kittens make rotten toys; iii) My name must be Robin. Apart from the lesson in parental control, you also ought to learn something about grammatical control. In each of the sentences above, an element is missing (from the underlined position) that is nonetheless "filled-in" by your target grammar. This is what linguists term the "understood subject" of the infinitive. In order to be able to understand such sentences and produce similar ones yourself, you have to figure out the reference of the understood subject in every case. Thus, unless you are after some big trouble with Mommy, you had better conclude that the understood subject is Robin and Mommy in (la), Robin in (Ib), Kittie in (Ic) and everyone (especially Robin ) in (ld).

Spis treści

1: Introduction.- 1 The Fundamental Questions Of Control.- 2 A Typology Of Control.- 3 EC And PC (Chapter 2).- 3.1 Properties Of PC.- 3.2 The Theory In A Nutshell.- 4 OC and NOC (Chapter 3).- 4.1 Super-Equi.- 4.2 Anaphors And Logophors.- 5 Control And Predication (Chapter 4).- 6 Implicit Control and Control Shift (Chapter 5).- 6.1 Implicit Control.- 6.2 Control Shift.- 7 The Overall Picture and Open Issues.- 2: Exhaustive and Partial Control.- Introduction: Categories of Control.- 1 Some Immediate Corollaries of Partial Control.- 2 Basic Properties of Control.- 2.1 Criteria for OC and NOC.- 2.2 EC vs. NOC.- 3 Distinguishing PC from EC.- 3.1 Complement Types of EC and PC.- 3.2 Where PC and EC are Alike.- 3.3 Where PC and EC Differ: Syntactic vs. Semantic Plurality.- 3.3.1 Desiderative & Interrogative Complements.- 3.3.2 Factive Complements.- 3.3.3 Propositional Complements.- 3.4 Semantic vs. Syntactic Plurality.- 3.5 Excursion: Split Control.- 3.6 Intermediate Summary: The Typology of Control.- 4 PC-Complements as a Natural Class: The Role of Tense.- 5 An Analysis.- 5.1 Semantic Number and Contentful Tense: Assumptions.- 5.2 Agree with Agr (PC) or PRO (EC).- 5.3 On Agr in C.- 6 Varieties of EC: CP Complements and VP Complements.- 6.1 Implicatives: Null or Contentful Tense?.- 6.2 Implicative Complements Are CP’s.- 6.3 Restructuring with Desideratives.- 7 Some consequences and Problems.- 7.1 An Overt Relative: German Inclusive Man.- 7.2 A Puzzle: French se-Predicates.- 8 An Alternative Proposal: Martin (1996).- Summary.- 3: Obligatory and Non-Obligatory Control.- 1 Super-Equi: The Data.- 1.1 The Problem.- 1.2 Crosslinguistic Confirmation.- 2 An Analysis.- 3 Configurational Consequences.- 4 Some Problems and Solutions.- 4.1 Logophoric Extension / Inalienable Possession.- 4.2 Apparent OC in Intraposition.- 5 Deriving The Distribution of OC and NOC.- 5.1 OC and Agree.- 5.2 OC ? Condition A.- 5.3 NOC and Logophoricity.- Summary.- 4: Control and Predication.- 1 Adjectives and Infinitival Complements: The Puzzle.- 2 Semantic Selection and Clause-Typing.- 3 Argument-Modifier Asymmetries.- 4 Two Apparent Problems.- 4.1 No PROarb Under Psych-Adjectives.- 4.2 Eager vs. Easy.- 5 A Crosslinguistic Correlation.- 6 Consequences for the Theory of Control.- Summary.- 5: Implicit Control and Control Shift.- 155.- 1.1 Control by Implicit Datives.- 1.2 Challenges to Control by Implicit Datives.- 1.3 Implicit Dative Control in Purpose Clauses.- 2 Control by Implicit Agents.- 2.1 Visser’s Generalization.- 2.2 Contexts of Implicit Agent Control.- 2.2.1 Impersonal Passives.- 2.2.2 Adjuncts.- 2.3 Rationale Clauses: The ship was sunk to drive linguists nuts.- 3 Control Shift.- 3.1 The Data.- 3.2 Theories of Control Shift.- 3.2.1 “No Special Mechanism” Theories.- 3.2.1.1 Melvold (1985).- 3.2.1.2 Petter (1998).- 3.2.2 “Special Mechanism” Theories.- 3.2.2.1 Bresnan (1982).- 3.2.2.2 Farkas (1988).- 3.2.2.3 Sag & Pollard (1991).- 4 The Status of the MDP.- Summary.- References.