Comparative Syntax of the Balkan Languages (Oxford ... - Cryptm.org

46 CARMEN DOBROVIE-SORIN2.1. Control and PROWithin GB theory, control effects are currently analyzed as being triggered by aparticular type of empty category, the "pronominal anaphor", notated PRO (cf.Chomsky 1981). Because of its intrinsic features, this element (instantiated byinfinitival subjects) must necessarily enter into a control relation:' it needs aclose antecedent, which fixes its reference, and the antecedent is an element ofthe main clause, either the subject or the object, depending on the lexical propertiesof the main verb. The relationship that an infinitival subject is bound to entertainwith an element in the main clause is called "control", hence the term"controlled element" for PRO itself.This analysis does not easily extend to Balkan languages. It is quite clearthat by virtue of its being identified by the Agr features on the verb, the nullsubject of Balkan subjunctives is rather of type pro, that is, comparable to thesubjects of tensed clauses (Philippaki-Warburton 1987).Another argument against the idea that the null subject of subjunctiveclauses is PRO relates to the fact that Balkan subjunctive clauses are compatiblewith both null and lexical subjects. When it is null, the subject may be coreferentialwith an element in the main clause (see (5a)) or it may refer freely (5b):(5) a. Maria vrea sa piece incline.Mary wants sa leave-3SG.SUBJ tomorrow'Mary wants to leave tomorrow.'b. Eu vreciu sa piece nidine.I want sa leave-3SG/PL.SUBJ tomorrowT want that [he/she/they] leave tomorrow.'These properties are expected if the null subject is pro, but not if it is PRO: inthe "PRO theorem", PRO can only occupy a position that is not accessible tolexical subjects. But despite the clarity of the data (which is unanimouslyacknowledged), most GB theorists propose analyses that assimilate thecontrolled subject of Balkan subjunctives to PRO (Dobrovie-Sorin 1987 forRomanian; latridou 1993, Terzi 1991, and Tsoulas 1993 for Greek; Krapova(this volume) for Bulgarian).2.2. Control as anaphoric bindingI will follow my earlier argument (Dobrovie-Sorin 1994.chap. 4) that no empiricalevidence exists in favor of the hypothesis that the null subject-of Balkansubjunctives has the status of PRO. These languages may instead be used as evidencein favor of those proposals that try to eliminate PRO from the grammar,by reducing control to anaphoric binding (Koster 1978, 1984, 1987; Manzini1983; Borer 1989).6 Despite a number of diverging ideas, these proposals all attemptto reduce control theory to binding theory by assuming that PRO has thestatus of an anaphor, 7 and as such is subject to principle A of binding theory: