172 L. MICHELLE CUTRER
The pivot of the dependent clause cannot be the actor, for the obligatory
gap is postverbal. The preverbal gap is not obligatory as it can be optionally
filled, as in:
(6) John bought the book ¡for Mary to read].
The pivot is therefore the object position, the undergoer of the dependent
clause.
Note that in RRG there is no indirect object control, or in LFG terms
OBJ2 control, as there is no equivalent grammatical relation in RRG. The
controller is predicted on the basis of the actor-undergoer contrast. The dis
cussion of undergoer pivot structures will be taken up in a later section.
In the case of core juncture, where arguments from distinct logical
structures are mapped into the same syntactic position in a clause, the
theory of control determines which argument of the first core is interpreted
as an argument in the logical structure of the second core. The theory of
control plays a role in the explanation of the mapping from logical structure
to syntax, and it is also needed to explain the interpretation of a sentence,
when mapping from the syntactic to the logical structure.2.2 The semantic analysis of control in Foley & Van Valin (1984)Both Foley & Van Valin (1984) and Comrie (1984) have suggested that
control predictions may be made based on verb semantics. Foley and Van
Valin propose that undergoer control (object control) occurs with all causa
tive verbs and with all directive speech act verbs, which can be viewed as a
kind of verbal causative. Non-causative verbs and non-directive speech-act
verbs always have actor control (subject control).
This prediction of undergoer control with causatives follows from the
semantics of causatives. The participant or undergoer acted upon in the
causing event is the actor in the caused event. Thus verbs like force, per
suade, discourage, and convince have undergoer control.
(7) a. John forced Mary to give him a divorce.
b. Mary was forced by John to give him a divorce.
In sentence (7a) above, John acts upon Mary and as she is acted upon, she
acts, in turn, to give him a divorce. Mary is undergoer in the matrix clause
John forced Mary, but is actor in the complement clause to give him a
divorce.