The structures of the to-infinitive

Abstract

This article presents an approach to the English to-infinitive where to is a preposition with a bare infinitive complement and ECM and object control complements receive a small clause analysis. Crucial to this approach is the positioning of PRO, which always occurs in the subject position of to's complement. This positioning allows a complementary distribution of PRO, lexical NPs, and NP-trace. The distribution of these elements, in conjunction with the small clause approach, creates multiple advantages including the elimination of current inconsistencies in the theory of null case, the reduction of control to anaphoric binding, and a general and uniform theory of complementation.