(^168) L. MICHELLE CUTRER
This analysis will not only look at the control of the subject of infiniti
val complements, but also at the control of the infinitival object gap. This
latter phenomena is exemplified in sentences such as (2a-c). (For a more
thorough analysis of purpose clauses see Faraci (1974) or Bach (1982).)
(2) a. John gave Mary [ the book to read ].
b. John bought a book [ to read ].
John bought Mary a mango [ to eat ].
It should be noted that referential dependence between the matrix NP and
a complement object gap is generally not considered to be a case of control
phenomena. In the Government and Binding framework (GB), only PRO
may be a controlled element. The object gap, however, is interpreted as a
WH-trace, which is bound by the empty WH-operator 0 in COMP.
(3) John gave the book to Mary [0{ [PRO to read ij].
The object gap cannot be PRO because it is governed and case-marked;
thus, referential dependence between this NP and a matrix NP cannot be
treated as a control relation. In constructions such as (3), only the optional
subject gap can be treated as a controlled element, since it is the only possi
ble location for PRO.
Before presenting the details of my analysis, I will briefly outline, in
section 1, some approaches to control phenomena found in the literature
and the problems associated with these analyses. In section 2, I will review
the semantic analysis of control proposed in Foley & Van Valin (1984).
Finally, in section 3, I will develop an analysis based on verb semantics,
clause-linkage and pragmatic factors.
1. Approaches to control
In the control literature, the approaches to control phenomena are princi
pally of two types: syntactic and semantic. The syntactic approaches
attempt to predict control relations from properties of structural configura
tions. Rosenbaum's (1967) Minimal Distance Principle is an early attempt
at predicting control relations based on structural principles. Chomsky
(1980), (1981), Manzini (1983), and Koster (1984) represent further
attempts to predict control relations based on syntactic properties within a
GB framework. Bresnan (1982) gives a formalized version of the Minimal