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Selection and the categorial status of infinitival complements

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Abstract

This paper is a contribution to the attempt to eliminate c-selection as an autonomous mechanism of grammar. We provide evidence against c-selection for different types of infinitival clauses and give an analysis of infinitival complementation based on the Case-theoretic account of the distribution of PRO, which we argue is superior to the standard binding-theoretic account. We argue that, like ECM infinitivals, control infinitivals can be of category IP. More precisely, we argue that as long as the CP status is not required by lexical properties independent of c-selection, control infinitivals not introduced by an overt complementizer are IPs. The IP status is forced on such infinitivals by the Principle of Economy of Representation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of Connecticut, U-145, 06269, Storrs, CT

    Željko Bošković

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  1. Željko Bošković
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This paper is a revised version of some parts of my 1992 paper ‘Clausal Selection, Minimality, and Subjacency’ (submitted as General Examination Paper at the University of Connecticut in 1993). I am grateful to Howard Lasnik, Mamoru Saito, and anonymous NLLT reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions on previous versions. Thanks are also due to Laura Conway, Marcel den Dikken, Steven Franks, Michael Hegarty, Norbert Hornstein, Roger Martin, Alan Munn, Javier Ormazabal, Colin Phillips, Gertjan Postma, Andrew Radford, Arhonto Terzi, Daiko Takahashi, Juan Uriagereka, and John Whitman, among others, for insightful comments and thought-provoking questions and Frederick J. Newmeyer for valuable editorial assistance. Some parts of the paper were presented at the 1994 LSA meeting held in Boston, the Minimalist Colloquium at the University of Maryland, and the Syntax Workshop at the University of Connecticut.

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Bošković, Ž. Selection and the categorial status of infinitival complements. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 14, 269–304 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133685

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