Visser’s Generalization: The Syntax of Control and the Passive
This squib presents an argument for an agreement-based model of control (Borer 1989, Landau 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008), drawn from a crosslinguistic generalization about control in passives. Specifically, I show that obligatory control by the thematic subject of a passive is sensitive to a purely synta...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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MIT Press
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78672 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5564-6317 |
| Summary: | This squib presents an argument for an agreement-based model of control (Borer 1989, Landau 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008), drawn from a crosslinguistic generalization about control in passives. Specifically, I show that obligatory control by the thematic subject of a passive is sensitive to a purely syntactic restriction: it is only possible if T does not agree with an overt DP. This restriction follows from the logic of an agreement-based approach, if implicit arguments participate in Agree relations (Landau 2010, Legate 2010). This generalization subsumes and derives an old observation about control, Visser’s Generalization ( Jenkins 1972, Bresnan 1982). |
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