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Complement Clauses in Portuguese: Syntax and acquisition
Edited by Ana Lúcia Santos and Anabela Gonçalves
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 17] 2018
► pp. 27–58

Control of inflected infinitives in European Portuguese

| Anglia Ruskin University

This chapter considers the distribution of inflected infinitives in European Portuguese (EP), with a particular emphasis on (exhaustive and partial) obligatory control (OC) contexts. It is shown, by means of large-scale survey data, that all EP speakers accept both inflected and uninflected infinitives in OC contexts but with substantial micro-parametric variation. An analysis is proposed whereby there are two distinct kinds of OC in EP, one derived via movement (Hornstein, 1999) and one resulting from Agree plus failed movement. Points of micro-parametric variation concern: the kind of non-finite clause selected for by various matrix predicates, patterns of obviation, and the precise way in which the thematic feature [D: ] is valued.

Keywords: partial control, exhaustive control, obviation, agree, phases
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The distribution of inflection in control contexts
  • 3.But is this really obligatory control?
  • 4.Challenges for existing theories of control
  • 5.Towards an analysis
    • 5.1The proposal
    • 5.2Covert comitatives
    • 5.3Obviation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 August 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.17.02she
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