Control and the Left Periphery: The Scope and Information Structure Properties of Hungarian Infinitival Complements with Nominative, Dative, and Covert Subjects

Abstract

The paper discusses Hungarian infinitival complement clauses containing covert, dative and nominative subjects and argues that the similar patterns in these different types of infinitives are the result of scope and information structure considerations. Sentences with infinitives with overt nominative subjects, therefore, cannot be described either as simply following from Long Distance Agreement as proposed in Szabolcsi (Organizing grammar, 2005, Approaches to Hungarian 11: Papers from the 2007 New York conference, 2009a, NYU working papers in linguistics, 2009b) or as clear instances of backward control but rather as instances of control interacting with left peripheral processes. Following Bartos (KB 120 A titkos kotet. Nyelveszeti tanulmanyok Banreti Zoltan es Komlosy Andras tiszteletere. MTA Nyelvtudomanyi Intezet, 2006) but working on an extended set of data I propose a copy theory of movement based analysis where the emergence of the nominative subject within the infinitival clause can be argued to be the result of LF-driven spellout leading to the pronunciation of the lower copy when information structure considerations so require. Complementing the copy theory of movement with a mechanism for doubling a DP can also account for those cases when the subject is spelled out both in the matrix and the infinitival clause, and the existence of patterns when one and the same clause contains more than one realization of the same DP in potentially different forms and discourse functions is also rightly predicted.