Introduction to Lexical Functional Grammar Control Functional ...

Control •

Introduction to Lexical Functional Grammar

In LFG, the theory of Control falls into two parts 1. Functional control 2. Anaphoric control

Session 9 Control

–

is itself part of a larger theory of anaphoric binding

Functional control

Functional control Aikaterini promised Tom to eat marshmallows.

Yufan believes that he understands f-structures.

The subject of the XCOMP is identical to the subject of the matrix verb

overt subject in complement clause Æ COMP

Aikaterini persuaded Tom to eat marshmallows. The subject of the XCOMP is identical to the object of the matrix verb

Yufan believes to understand f-structures. no overt subject in complement clause Æ XCOMP

• The relationship between the implicit subject of the complement (controllee) and the argument of the matrix verb (controller) is called functional predication or functional control

Functional control • Functional control is lexically specified

Functional control IP f 1

promise V (↑ PRED) = ´promise (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) (↑XCOMP) ` (↑ SUBJ) = (↑XCOMP ↑SUBJ)

DP N

persuade V (↑ PRED) = ´persuade (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) (↑XCOMP) ` (↑ OBJ) = (↑XCOMP ↑SUBJ)

f-structure

c-structure

f1 SUBJ f PRED 3 I‘

f3

VP V

Aikaterini promises

N

PRED

´promise (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) (↑XCOMP) ` ´Tom`

PRED

2

V

DP f

4

to eat Tom control relation only represented in f-structure

PRES

OBJ

CP f

DP

´Aikaterini`

TENSE

N

marsh.s

XCOMP

f2

SUBJ f 3 PRED OBJ

´eat (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) `

f4 PRED DEF NUM

´marshmallow` – PL

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Functional control • The previous slide shows how functional control is represented: the subject is shared by the main verb and the predicate complement; i.e. the same f-structure f3 is the value of two attributes, the SUBJ of f1 and the SUBJ of f2. • This structure-sharing is also represented the following way: SUBJ

PRED

PRED OBJ XCOMP

keep

V

´Tom`

Aikaterini kept Tom eating marshmallows. keep

V

(↑ PRED) = ´keep (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) (↑XCOMP) ` (↑ OBJ) = (↑XCOMP ↑SUBJ)

´eat (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) ` PRED

(↑ PRED) = ´keep (↑SUBJ) (↑XCOMP) `

´marshmallow`

…

OBJ

Aikaterini kept eating marshmallows. (↑ SUBJ) = (↑XCOMP ↑SUBJ)

SUBJ PRED

• Just another example of the same type

´Aikaterini`

´promise (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) (↑XCOMP) ` PRED

Functional control

Functional control • Control constructions such as in the examples we have seen so far are also called Equi-constructions in generative linguistics.

Functional control • Raising-to-subject Carsten seems to eat marshmallows. seem

V

• There is another type of control constructions which is called Raising – The verbs involved differ in only one respect from the equi verbs: they take an athematic argument which serves as the selected argument of its complement; i.e. the controller bears no thematic relation to its verb

(↑ PRED) = ´seem (↑XCOMP)

(↑SUBJ) `

(↑ SUBJ) = (↑XCOMP ↑SUBJ) SUBJ PRED XCOMP

PRED ´seem

´Carsten` (↑OBJ)

(↑SUBJ) `

SUBJ PRED

´eat (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) ` PRED

´marshmallow`

…

OBJ

Functional control • Raising-to-object Louisa proved there to be infinitely many prime numbers. prove

V

(↑ PRED) = ´prove (↑SUBJ) (↑XCOMP) (↑OBJ) ` (↑ OBJ) = (↑XCOMP ↑SUBJ)

Anaphoric control Cloning dinosaurs would please the geneticist. Maria thinks that watering the lawn before noon is silly. • The controlled position is the subject of a gerund or infinitive (although anaphoric control is more restricted than functional control) • The controlled position may, but need not, be understood as controlled by the subject of the matrix verb • The missing subject behaves like a pronoun, in that it can have a whole range of possible antecedents • The 2nd example above is perhaps most naturally understood ‚generically‘

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Anaphoric control • Anaphoric control involves an optional rule in English that assigns the following pair of equations to the lexical entry of a verb: (↑SUBJ PRED) = ´PRO` ¬(↑TENSE)

Anaphoric control SUBJ SUBJ PRED OBJ

PRED

´PRO`

INDEX

i

´clone (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) ` PRED

´dinosaur`

NUM

PL CONDITIONAL TENSE PRED ´please (↑SUBJ) (↑OBJ) ` OBJ

PRED DEF

The application of the rule provides a pronominal subject in f-structure. (Note: this has no cstructure realization !)

´geneticist`

NUM

– SG

INDEX

i

This pronominal subject is then subject to whatever constraints which hold on anaphoric control. For example, if there is an anaphoric link to an argument it is indicated by introducing an index

Homework • No homework this time! You need to buy X-mas presents

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