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Chapter 12

Chapter 12. Infinitival Complements. Infinitival complements produce "complex meanings", i.e. sentences in which one situation functions as a semantic argument of another.

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Chapter 12

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  1. Chapter 12 Infinitival Complements

  2. Infinitival complements produce "complex meanings", i.e. sentences in which one situation functions as a semantic argument of another. There are basically two ways in which propositions can be combined into complex meanings, for which the following examples are representative: a. Pat continues to avoid conflict. b. Pat tries to avoid conflict. Introduction

  3. The infinitival To • functions as an auxiliary ([AUX +]) verb • has a nonfinite form we introduce a new binary feature INF • The lexical entry for infinitival to will be [INF +], whereas all other verbs are [INF -]. • is specified as [FORM base]

  4. to does not contribute to the semantics of a sentence. • This becomes obvious from cases where it is optional: (1) a. Pat helped Chris [to solve the problem]. b. Pat helped Chris [solve the problem]. (2) a. They wouldn't dare [to attack us]. b. They wouldn't dare [attack us].

  5. Because of this "semantic emptiness", the lexical entry of to has [RESTR < >] and shares the INDEX value of its VP complement. Thus, when to combines with its VP complement, only the complement contributes to the semantic restriction of the resulting VP. To is a kind of verb lexeme, thus it inherits all constraints of verb-lxm that are not overridden.

  6. The Verb Continue (3) a. Pat continues to avoid conflict. b. There continued to be no easy answer to the dilemma. c. It continues to bother me that Chris lied. d. (Unfair) advantage continues to be taken of the refugees. Continue places no restriction of its own on its subject, but takes as a subject whatever kind of subject its VP complement is looking for. If the subject of the VP has to be referential, like for avoid conflict, then the subject of continues to avoid conflict has to be referential as well. If a VP like be no easy answer to the dilemma requires a dummy there as its subject, then continues to be no easy answer to the dilemma must take there as a subject as well.

  7. Thus, it can be specified that continue and its complement must have the same subject. • Therefore, the first element in continue's ARG-ST is tagged as identical to the SPR value of the second element in the ARG-ST list.

  8. Continue does not assign any semantic role to its subject. This becomes obvious from a comparison of active-passive pairs: (4) a. The FBI continued to visit Lee. b. Lee continued to be visited by the FBI. • The only semantic argument that continue takes is the situation of its infinitival complement, and the predication that continue makes about this argument is that this situation continues to be the case. • Thus, both sentences in (4) mean that it continues to be the case that the FBI visits Lee:

  9. Since continue does not assign a semantic role to its subject, it can also accept nonreferentials like dummy it and there or idiom chunks as its subject, although they have 'none' as their INDEX value. • With these properties, continue is a representative of a new class of verbs, for which we introduce the lexical type subject-raising-verb-lexeme (srv-lxm) as an immediate subtype of verb-lxm:

  10. The semantic values assigned to (4)a. and (4)b. differ only in the order of the elements on the RESTR list. Since this order has no semantic significance, they are predicted to be semantically equal:

  11. The Verb Try • a. Pat continues to avoid conflict. • b. Pat tries to avoid conflict. • Though these sentences at first glance look quite similar to each other, a further analysis of the verb try will show that its properties differ distinctively from those we have identified for continue.

  12. (5) a. Pat tries to avoid conflict. b. * There tried to be no easy answer to the dilemma. c. * It tries to bother me that Chris lied. d. * (Unfair) advantage tries to be taken of the refugees. • With try sentences that have a nonreferential subject are ill formed, even if the verb embedded in try's complement does indeed select for a nonreferential subject.

  13. Furthermore, the active-passive sentences which were paraphrases with continue are not synonymous with the verb try: (6) a. The FBI tried to find Lee. b. Lee tried to be found by the FBI. • This is because unlike continue predications, which take only one semantic role (ARG), predications of trying involve two things: - an individual who is trying sth (=TRIER) and - some situation or state of affairs which the trier wants to bring about. • With try, the active-passive sentences differ in meaning because the two triers are not the same.

  14. Verbs like try, which assign a semantic role to their subject, are called control verbs. • For them, too, we introduce a new subtype of verb-lxm which we call subject-control-verb-lexeme (scv-lxm):

  15. Lexical entry for Try

  16. Comparison active and passive

  17. Comparison active and passive

  18. Summary: Subject Raising and Subject Control • subject raising verbs like continue : - express properties of situations - allow nonreferential subjects - give rise to paraphrastic active-passive pairs • subject control verbs like try : - express a relation between an individual and a situation - never take nonreferential subjects - fail to produce analogous paraphrastic active-passive pairs

  19. Raising and Control Adjectives • In fact, not only verbs can be divided into these two classes, but there are also raising adjectives and control adjectives. (7) a. Pat is likely to scream. b. Pat is eager to scream. (8) a. There is likely to be a letter in the mailbox. b. It is likely to upset Pat that Chris left. c. * There is eager to be a letter in the mailbox. d. * It is eager to upset Pat that Chris left. (9) a. The doctor is likely to examine Pat. ≈ Pat is likely to be examined by the doctor. b. The doctor is eager to examine Pat. ≠ Pat is eager to be examined by the doctor. • This suggests that we should introduce a more abstract type like subject-raising-lexeme as a supertype of srv-lxm and a similar adjectival lexeme.

  20. Object Raising and Object Control • Two other verbs which take infinitival complements are expect and persuade. • They make up phrases like the following, in which the NP is the direct object of the verb and the infinitival VP is also a complement of the verb: (10) a. I expected Leslie to be aggressive. b. I persuaded Leslie to be aggressive.

  21. The difference between expect and persuade in complex sentences is analogous to the distinction between continue and try: • Just as the subject of continue plays no semantic role in the continue predication, the object of expect plays no role in the expect predication. • The object of persuade is like the subject of try in that it plays a semantic role with respect to the persuade predication, while at the same time playing the semantic role assigned to the subject of the complement's verb.

  22. Expect is an example of an object raising verb:

  23. Lexical Entry for Expect

  24. Persuade is an example of an object control verb:

  25. Lexical entry for Persuade

  26. Summary • There is a fundamental difference between two kinds of verbs: • a) Raising verbs select one ARG-ST member assigned no semantic role • b) Control verbs, which are quite similar, but assign a semantic role to each member of their ARG-ST list

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