Overt Nominative Subjects in Infinitival Complements Cross - NYU ...

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NYU Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 2: Papers in Syntax, Spring 2009 18(68) Elkezdtek [csak a fiúk dolgozni éjszaka].began-3pl only the boys work-inf at.nightLO: `It began to be the case that only the boys work at night’The fact that the pronoun in (66) agrees with the finite control verb is not very surprising; afterall, it is controlled by the subject of that verb. Agreement with the matrix verb is moreremarkable in the raising examples (67)-(68), since we have no evidence of én and a fiúk everoccurring in the matrix clause.If the matrix agreement morpheme is removed, effectively turning the inflection into 3sg,which in most verb classes is morphologically unmarked, all these become a word salad:(69) ***Utál [ csak én dolgozni].hate.3sg only I work-inf(70) ***Nem fog [csak én dolgozni éjszaka].not will.3sg only I work-inf at.night(71) ***Elkezdett [csak a fiúk dolgozni éjszaka].began.3sg only the boys work-inf at.nightWhen agreement is not possible, there is no nominative infinitival subject. This predicts,correctly, that infinitival complements of object control verbs have no nominative subjects, sincethe matrix verb is committed to agree with a different argument. Compare object controlkényszerít `force’ with the agreeing unaccusative version, kényszerül `be forced’:(72) *Kényszerítettek (téged) [te is dolgozni].forced.3pl you,sg.acc you,sg.nom too work-inf(73) Kényszerültél [te is dolgozni].was.forced.2sg you,sg too work-infLO `You (sg.) were forced to work too’As is the case with nominatives in general, the pertinent agreement must be subject- and notobject-agreement. So (74), where the verb, exceptionally in the language, agrees not only withthe 1sg subject but also with the 2person object, patterns exactly as (72):(74) *Kényszerítettelek (téged) [te is dolgozni].forced.3pl+2pers you,sg.acc you,sg.nom too work-infAgreement has to be “completely matched”:(75) *Kényszerülünk [én/te is dolgozni].are.forced.1pl I.nom/you,sg.nom too work.infLikewise there are no overt nominative subjects in free-standing infinitives that function as rudeor military imperatives:
NYU Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 2: Papers in Syntax, Spring 2009 19(76) (*Maga is) Távozni!you too leave-inf`Leave!’The possibility of overt nominative subjects with controlled purpose adjuncts is dubious. I cannotdecide whether they are marginally acceptable:(77) Péter a balkonon aludt. ?? Bementem a hálószobába én is aludni.`Peter was sleeping on the balcony. I went in the bedroom to sleep too’Further supporting evidence is offered by considering “imposters” in the sense of Collinsand Postal (2008); roughly, names or definites “acting as” first person pronouns. As the authorsobserve, imposters do not give rise to Condition C effects in certain circumstances:(78) I i think that Daddy i should get the prize. [Daddy speaking](79) I i believe that this reporter i deserves the credit. [the reporter speaking](80) shows that Hungarian has imposters:(80) Father wants to go somewhere alone and child insists on accompanying him.Father says:Azt hiszem, hogy csak Apukának kellene menni.that-acc believe-1sg that only Daddy-dat should go-inf`I(=Daddy) think that only Daddy should go’The question is whether in the control cases, the overt nominative subject in the embedded clausecan be an imposter or not. (81a) is good, but (81b) with an imposter, signaled by the 1sgagreement, is incoherent:(81) a. Jobb szeretne csak Apuka menni.better would-like-3sg only Daddy go-inf`Daddy would like to go on his own'b.*Jobb szeretnék csak Apuka menni.better would-like-1sg only Daddy go-infAs a reviewer points out, this conforms to the proposed analysis, showing the importance ofmatched agreement features.2.4.2 Inflected infinitivesHungarian has a narrower range of infinitival complements than English, so not all examples thatmight come to the reader’s mind can be tested. However, there is an important case to consider.Inflected infinitives in Portuguese take nominative subjects (Raposo 1987):
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