Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

(singke) #1
176 L. MICHELLE CUTRER

(14) (In order) to please her, John bought Mary a piano.

Non-rationale control constructions cannot be preposed.


(15) *To play, John bought Mary a piano.
Second, rationale clauses cannot have gaps in a non-subject position. In
other words, there cannot be a gap after the verb. This is shown in the fol­
lowing examples.
(16) a. She gave it to me in order for my brother to review it.
b. *She gave it to me in order for my brother to review.
Bach's syntactic tests for purpose clauses are: first, that purpose clauses
always exhibit a gap. (The examples are taken from Bach).
(17) *She gave it to me for my brother to review it.
There may be a gap in the subject position; however, the important point is
that there is always a post-verbal gap.
(18) a. She brought it over for my brother to review, (obj. gap)
b. / brought it to read to the children, (subj. and object gap)
Bach claims that with purpose constructions, if the embedded transi­
tive verb is passive, as in (19) a subject gap is obligatory.
(19) Fred brought in his car to be repaired.
However, the matrix clause controller remains the same as in the active ver­
sion, shown in (20).
(20) Fred brought in his car for Bill to repair.
In the above examples, his car is the controller of the subject gap in the pas­
sive version, but controller of the object gap in the active version.
Bach also claims that purpose clauses exhibit a "future orientation"
with respect to the main clause. This is not always the case with rationale
clauses.
(21) a. / bought it to give to my sister, (purpose)
b. / bought it in order to use up my money, (rationale)
The event encoded in the linked core in (21a) has a future orientation with
respect to the event in the matrix core. This is not so in (21b).
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