Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

SEMANTIC AND SYNTACTIC FACTORS IN CONTROL 179

3.1.2.1 Control of the object gap in purpose clauses

As seen previously, there are two control relations to account for in pur­
pose clauses: control of the obligatory object gap and control of an optional
subject gap. Let us turn first to the control of the obligatory post-verbal
gap-

(27) a. John chose a shirt to wear.

b. Mary bought a book to read.

 John built a chest to put his clothes in.

Purpose constructions encode the choice, possession, or transfer of posses­
sion of an item and the use to which that item is put. Because the purpose
construction revolves around this ownership or use of an item, the control
of the obligatory post-verbal gap will naturally revolve around the item
which is used, obtained, available, possessed, or transferred. This observa­
tion can be formulated in RRG in the following manner: the controller of
the post-verbal gap is the highest ranking potential undergoer on the Actor-
Undergoer Hierarchy, shown in (28) below.

(28) Actor-Undergoer Hierarchy

ACTOR UNDERGOER

Agent Effector Experiencer Locative Theme Patient

[—> = increasing markedness of realization of thematic relation

as macrorole]

In sentence (27a), John is an effector-recipient and shirt is a theme. The

shirt is thus the highest ranking argument on the undergoer end of the hier­

archy and is correctly predicted to be controller of the object gap. In (27b),

the highest ranking argument with respect to the undergoer end is the book,

which is correctly predicted to be the controller of the post-verbal gap. To

repeat, the post-verb al gap is controlled by the highest ranking potential

undergoer argument. This argument is not necessarily the theme. Examples

(29a,b) show both a theme and a patient as controllers of the object gap.

(29) a. He bought the book for his sister to read.

b. He killed the turkey for his sister to eat.

In (29a), it is the theme, the book, which is the highest ranking potential

undergoer argument. In sentence (29b), it is the patient, the turkey, which