Movement Theory Of Control Research Articles

The Movement Theory of Control and Null Subject in Korean

The Movement Theory of Control and Null Subject in Korean

Obligatory Control in Irish and Polish: A Reappraisal

Obligatory control (henceforth, OC) has constituted a topic extensively discussed in the literature (cf., for instance, Williams (1980), Landau (2000), Wurmbrand (2001)). Recently the controversy over OC has climaxed in the emergence of two rivaling approaches, deriving it via two distinct mechanisms. The movement theory of control, advocated by Hornstein (1999, 2001, 2003), Boeckx and Hornstein (2004, 2006), among others, derives OC by means of the N(D)P-movement of the alleged controller of PRO without posting PRO as a separate empty category altogether. The latter approach – the calculus of control proposed by Landau (2004, 2008) – maintaining the existence of PRO, obtains OC thanks to the interplay between C and I found in the non-finite clause. The present paper is rooted within the second approach and its main objective consists in providing an analysis of OC in Irish and Polish. The paper starts with a short overview of two subtypes of OC, i.e. exhaustive and partial control. This is followed by a brief outline of Landau’s (2004, 2008) model. Afterwards, an attempt is made to analyse Irish and Polish OC within Landau’s calculus of control.

What Brazilian Portuguese Says about Control: Remarks on Boeckx & Hornstein

. In an article in this journal, Boeckx & Hornstein (2006a) present data from Brazilian Portuguese (BP) as an argument in favor of the Movement Theory of Control (MTC). In this reply, I show that the data presented by those authors do not necessarily argue for a movement analysis of BP finite subjects nor of nonfinite control. I also show that BP provides arguments against the MTC when inflected infinitives are considered. Inflected infinitives may be used in BP in partial control structures, which makes it explicit that a singular matrix argument may control a syntactically plural null subject and shows that these two positions cannot be related by movement. Additionally, I show that the MTC makes the wrong predictions when a language with inflected infinitives is considered.

On Reducing Control to Movement

. Hornstein (1999, 2001) proposes a version of the movement theory of control (MTC) in which movement of a DP is driven by the need to “receive” a θ-feature of the verb/predicate it merges with. I argue against the use of θ-features in syntax on the grounds that they are fundamentally semantic, hence properly belong to the bare output conditions of the C-I interface. I propose instead a version of the MTC closer in spirit to Bowers (1973/1986, 1981) in which Merge is driven by interpretable or uninterpretable c-selection features of the standard sort. I then show that, given standard minimalist assumptions, the MTC is not only possible but necessary. I conclude by arguing that the MTC thus formulated supports a purely derivational theory of syntax and interpretation that contains no level of LF.

The Minimalist Syntax of Defective Domains. Gerunds and Infinitives

Defectiveness is an important issue in syntactic theory, namely in the study of non-finite domains that lack tense and/or agreement features. In this book, Acrisio Pires investigates this topic, searching for a unified analysis of Eng-lish gerunds and Portuguese infinitives by focusing on subject licensing and, consequently, on agreement, Case and Control properties. According to the author, the above mentioned constructions present some sort of defectiveness in tense and agreement features, and, in spite of some variation, they share a wide range of properties that can be explained under the same mechanisms, namely by adopting the movement theory of control (Hornstein, 1999). Be-sides the synchronic analysis, the book also addresses some historical aspects of Portuguese infinitives, thus providing an important contribution for the theory of language acquisition and change.

Inflected infinitives in Brazilian Portuguese as an argument both contra and in favor of a movement analysis of control

Este trabalho mostra que dados do PB indicam fortemente que a teoria de Controle por Movimento está errada, no que concerne Controle de Sujeito. Surpreendentemente, dados da mesma língua indicam que essa teoria está certa, quando se considera Controle de Objeto. A proposta é de que movimento é geralmente usado para derivar estruturas de controle, entretanto, por razões Casuais, movimento não pode partir de uma posição de Sujeito para outra posição de Sujeito.

Lingering Challenges to the Raising‐to‐object and Object‐control Constructions

Abstract. This article provides an overview of the three main approaches to raising‐to‐object sentences likeCindy believes Marcia to be a genius. The article describes the strengths and challenges faced by these accounts, reaching a number of conclusions. First, the covert ‘‘LF’’ raising account, though successful at accounting for certain interpretational facts about the construction, does not provide an analysis of the word‐order facts. Second, the overt raising account, which can account for the word order facts, still faces two main challenges; there remain important open questions about verb placement, and though none of the current approaches to extraction can easily explain it, extraction and raising‐to‐object interact in complex ways that are still not well understood. Third, the movement theory of control, which treats object control in a way parallel to overt raising‐to‐object, faces not only the challenges to the overt raising account, but several others particular to object control. Finally, the article describes the HPSG analysis of raising‐to‐object, which can account straightforwardly for the word order facts, and with the appropriate constraints can be extended to account for the extraction facts discussed.

Movement under Control

We examine the three categories of empirical argument that Landau (2003) puts forward against a movement theory of control (MTC): overgeneration cases, alleged arguments in favor of an MTC, and raising/control contrasts. We show that the problems cited either have plausible alternative analyses that leave the MTC unscathed or, in fact, are not nearly as dire for the MTC as Landau supposes. We conclude that the “standard” theory enjoys no obvious empirical advantages over the MTC and that the MTC is superior on conceptual and methodological grounds.