Syntax: Transformations: Control

Consider the following sentence: "Superman decided to travel." There are two verbs: 'decided' and 'travel'. Only the first verb has a subject (Superman). The second verb, which is non-finite, appears to lack a subject, yet it is a requirement in English that clauses have subjects. We know intuitively that the subject of the first verb is also the subject of the second (Superman is the one traveling). Since the verb ‘to travel’ is non-finite, it cannot have an overt subject due to the fact that it is unable to assign nominative case. Thus this space is filled by a non-overt element called PRO, that appears in the specifier position of the non-finite clause. PRO is co-indexed with its antecedent; this relationship is referred to as ‘control.’ In subject control PRO is coindexed with the subject: Supermani decided [PROi to travel] (PRO refers to Superman) In object control PRO is coindexed with the object of the finite clause. Superman wanted Harrieti [PROi to come with him] (PRO refers to Harriet) Draw trees for the following sentences, including PRO in the representations. Answers are given in both simple and X-bar form.