Control into infinitival relatives
Jamie Douglas
December 2017 

This paper focuses on a novel English construction involving control and infinitival relatives. Examples such as this is John’s book to read have a head noun (book) modified by an infinitival relative clause (to read) and a prenominal possessor (John’s). I argue that there is a control relation between the prenominal possessor and the PRO subject of the infinitival relative. I show that this control relation bears the structural hallmarks of obligatory control whilst at the same time permitting PRO to be interpreted as arbitrary. I discuss these empirical facts in the context of a syntactic, Agree-based theory of control.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/003803 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	English Language and Linguistics (DOI: 10.1017/S1360674318000011)
keywords:	control, infinitival relative clause, prenominal possessor, big pro, syntax
Downloaded:	477 times

 

[ edit this article | back to article list ]