Control in Grammar and Pragmatics

Control in Grammar and Pragmatics by Rudolf Růžička

The claim that “…pronominals have phonological features only where they must, for some reason”, is strongly supported by the occurrence of the null pronoun PRO as coined and introduced by Noam Chomsky. How reference of PRO is determined is the main subject of control theory, the subsystem of core grammar to which this study is dedicated. Chomsky has not followed up his “natural suggestion that choice of controller is determined by theta roles or other semantic properties of the verb, perhaps pragmatic conditions of some sort.” But then, a great many students of control have engaged in exploring thematic roles as tools most suitable for investigating control. Shifting analysis of control to the relationship between thematic features carried by PRO and its potential controller respectively, was a turning point in control theory. Control proved to be a by-product of satisfying matching conditions that exist between thematic properties of PRO and its licit controller. The constraints derived from them are not construction-specific. If grammar and pragmatics seem to go hand in hand, their complicity in determining control behavior is elucidated by showing that pragmatic factors can be referred to by grammatical constraints. Data of nine languages are used in the study.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781556199110
ISBN 10	1556199112
Title	Control in Grammar and Pragmatics
Author	Rudolf Růžička
Series	Linguistik Aktuell Linguistics Today
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Benjamins (John) North America Inc.,US
Year published	1999-07-15
Number of pages	206
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.