Practical Grammar 9

Functional Control

In this unit, we will extend the grammar to license sentences with verbs like 'try' and 'seems' which have interesting properties.

try (Control verb)

Notation:

In the exercises of this unit, we will have to implement Control: this means that a GF of the higher verb and the SUBJ of the higher verb's XCOMP are identical.

In XLFG, this is written as follows:

• (↑SUBJ) = (↑XCOMP SUBJ); means: the SUBJ of the higher verb and the XCOMP's SUBJ are identical.
• (↑OBJ) = (↑XCOMP SUBJ); means: the OBJ of the higher verb and the XCOMP's SUBJ are identical.

Exercise 9.1

• Go to https://xlfg.labri.fr/.
• Extend your lastest grammar or make yourself a copy of Grammar5-Ex8.2-solution.
• On the basis of pages 102-103 in the textbook, make all the additions to the grammar that are necessary to yield the following outputs for sentence (1):

(1) Ingrid tried to buy olives.

   

Implement the following grammatical assumptions:

• 'to' (the infinitive marker): assume that it is marked [IM:+].
• 'buy': [VFORM:INF]

Make sure that your grammar makes the correct predictions for the sentences below:

(2) Ingrid buys olives
(3) *Ingrid tried buys olives

seem (Raising verb)

Notation:

The verb seem differes from the verb try in that seem does not assign a semantic role to its SUBJ. This is the first time we encounter such verbs. In XLFG, GFs that the predicate does not assign a role to are written between the closing > and the final apostrophe, as follows:

• PRED:'X<...>Y'

Meaning of the line above: the GFs listed in ... are assigned semantic roles by the predicate, but the grammatical function Y is not.

Exercise 9.2

• Go to https://xlfg.labri.fr/.
• Make sure that under 'Output Parameters' Extended Coherence test on Feature-Structures is set to Yes.
• Extend your previous grammar.

• On the basis of pages 104-108 in the textbook, make all the additions to the grammar that are necessary to yield the following outputs for sentence (4):

(4) Ingrid seemed to buy olives.

   

persuade (Object control verb)

try and seem are subject control (raising verbs), because the controller of the lower subject is the higher subject. But, objects can control as well. One verb where that is the case is persuade.

Exercise 9.3

Make all the changes to your current grammar so that it licenses the representations below:

(5) Ingrid persuaded Fred to buy olives.

    File:Ingrid-persuaded-Fred-to-buy-olives-fs.JPG

Make sure that your grammar makes the correct predictions for the sentences below:

(2) Ingrid buys olives
(3) *Ingrid persuadaed Fred buys olives

expect(Object raising verb)

expect is an object raising verb.

Exercise 9.4

Make all the changes to your current grammar so that it licenses the representations below:

(5) Ingrid expected Fred to buy olives.

   

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