Ditransitives, purpose clauses and control: most of a story of almost everything

Abstract

In attempts to formulate theories of antecedent selection in control constructions there has been an overwhelming preference to restrict the search for answers to the domain of control in complements. This paper seeks to rectify this situation by examining the patterns of control behaviour found in purpose clause adjuncts.

Taking as our starting point purpose clauses attached to ditransitive matrix clauses, a theory of control is developed in which dontroller choice is dependant on event semantics, with crucial appeal to notions of transfer, possession and asymmetry in result state predicates. Predictions made by this theory with regard to purpose clause control in Korean are shown to be correct. This theory is shown to have explanatory power beyond controller selection and to be readily generalisable to control in complements.