[日本語 | English]
Nearly free control (Jackendoff and Culicover 2003), exemplified
in (1), is a type of control pattern where, unlike obligatory
control, any NP in the local clause is allowed to be a
controller. (In addition, a split or a generic controller is
allowed.) However, unlike normal nonobligatory control, nearly
free control does not allow any NP outside the local clause, the
speaker or the hearer, to be the controller, as shown
in (1b-d). Furthermore, importantly, the verbs whose complements
show the nearly free control pattern are restricted to verbs of
communication or thought, such as _talk to_, _speak to_,
_discuss_, _mention_ or _think_ etc.
(1) a. John_i talked to Sarah_j about PRO_i/j/i+j/gen undressing
himself_i/herself_j/themselves_i+j/oneself_gen in public.
b. *Amy_k knows that John_i talked to Bill_j about PRO_k
undressing herself_k in public. (long distance control)
c. *Amy's_k strange behavior has been a concern of everybody.
John talked to Bill about PRO_k undressing
herself_k in public. (discourse antecedent control)
d. *John talked to Sarah about PRO_i/j undressing
myself_i/yourself_j in public. (speaker/hearer control)
In this talk, I propose a novel analysis this control pattern:
Nearly free control is more restricted than normal nonobligatory
control because of the obligatoriness of de se interpretation
coming from a general semantic principle, which governs the
interpretation of attitude relations between individuals and
properties (Lewis 1979, Chierchia 1989). On the other hand, nearly
free control is less restricted than obligatory control because the
predicates appearing in this type of control lack (or are
underspecified as to) the argument oriented entailments associated
with their lexical semantics, unlike in the case of obligatory
control verbs.
Last modified: 2009-07-15 10:34:15 JST