Infinitives: Restructuring and Clause Structure (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Infinitives: Restructuring and Clause Structure Asya Pereltsvaig Susanne Wurmbrand . Infinitives: Restructuring and Clause Structure. In the series Studies in Generative Grammar 55. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 2001. Pp. x + 371. US$55 (paperback). This book is a revised version of Susanne Wurmbrand's doctoral dissertation. It investigates a range of infinitival constructions focusing mostly on German; other languages considered include English, Italian, Dutch, and Japanese. The main aim of the book is to account for the gamut of variation in syntactic behaviour and semantic interpretation among different infinitival structures. Previous literature on the subject discusses cases where infinitival complement clauses appear to be transparent domains for syntactic phenomena that are otherwise clause-bound and those where infinitival complement clauses are as opaque as finite clauses. It has also been observed that infinitival clauses may or may not receive a variable interpretation for the understood infinitival subject and may or may not permit a tense interpretation distinct from that of the matrix clause. In order to explain these sorts of facts, Wurmbrand proposes to elaborate the two-way distinction found in the previous literature between restructuring and non-restructuring infinitival clauses. According to her, the so-called "restructuring" phenomenon should be split into two subclasses—lexical and functional restructuring—and non-restructuring infinitives should be subdivided into full clausal non-restructuring and reduced non-restructuring. Hence, she proposes a four-way distinction where each type of infinitive corresponds to a certain type of functional architecture above the VP: in lexical restructuring the infinitival is a VP, in functional restructuring it is the main predicate (i.e., a vP), in reduced non-restructuring it is a vP or a TP, and in full clausal non-restructuring it is a CP. It is furthermore claimed that "differences in the syntactic structure among different classes of infinitival complement clauses correspond closely (though not perfectly) to differences in interpretation" (pp. 1-2). As for the question of what determines which class a certain infinitive belongs to, Wurmbrand shows that the class of restructuring predicates is characterised by uniform syntactic properties, but maintains that "the semantics of a configuration is not sufficient to determine whether a construction allows or disallows restructuring" (p. 9). Consider restructuring infinitives first. One of the crucial issues concerning restructuring is how much functional architecture is included in a restructuring infinitive. There are two main types of approaches to this issue in the literature: bi-clausal and mono-clausal. According to bi-clausal approaches, restructuring infinitives are derived from larger non-restructuring infinitives by structure changing operations (e.g., pruning, restructuring, or reanalysis), head movement, topicalisation, or some combination thereof. Under mono-clausal approaches restructuring infinitives are not derived from non-restructuring infinitives but are generated with less than the full array of functional projections on top of the VP (or just the VP itself, as in the case of lexical restructuring infinitives). Wurmbrand considers the two types of approaches and concludes that "a mono-clausal approach is empirically and conceptually superior since it explains and predicts a range of correlations between the syntactic and semantic properties of restructuring contexts"; biclausal approaches, according to her, "involve various unmotivated assumptions that question the explanatory value of these approaches" (p. 10). Crucially for Wurmbrand, restructuring infinitives do not project INFL- or COMP-type functional categories. This accounts for their syntactic behaviour and semantic interpretation. [End Page 125] Thus, "restructuring infinitives denote bare events or actions—i.e., predicates that lack any kind of propositional or force properties (such as tense, complementizers, and negation)" (p. 17). Furthermore, it is shown that restructuring infinitives lack an embedded syntactic subject (i.e., PRO), which would be introduced by vo. In addition, she argues that restructuring infinitives also lack a structural object case position (e.g., AgrOP). The latter proposal about the structure of restructuring infinitives explains a range of phenomena, such as "long passive" in German, Italian, and Spanish, easy-to-please constructions, and case-assignment in Japanese infinitival constructions. Furthermore, Wurmbrand shows that true restructuring infinitives are tenseless; "as soon as the infinitive involves its own tense specification (i.e., tense features or operator, or before/after relation), the structure blocks...