A Study Of The Syntactic Derivation Of English Control Constructions Under The Framework Of Minimalist Program

English control constructions involve the reference constraint between the unexpressed subject PRO and other syntactic constitutes.Under the theoretical framework of minimalist program,based on probing into the case valuation mechanism of PRO and the syntactic properties of English control constructions,this thesis re-examines the existing movement and non-movement analysis and proposes a new syntactic analysis for English argument control constructions and adjunct control constructions.The existence of PRO in English control constructions is supported by the ellipsis evidence and argument structure evidence.Guided by empty categories theory,control theory,argument theory,VP shell theory and phase theory within Minimalist Program(MP)framework and based on the research of Ma(2015a),we agree that PRO is the product of base-derivation rather than movement.It is considered that null case valuation mechanism is similar to that of the structural case.PRO is base-derived in spec-v*,and the null case of PRO is endowed by Tense(T).The phase head null Complementizer(C)has uninterpretable features,which are delivered to T.Probe T is activated by null C,then it probes PRO and passes on null case to PRO.Ma(2015a)uses Probe-and-Goal theory to analyze the null case assignment of PRO when the PRO serves as the complement of the sentence,and we revise the single null [Agr] feature transfer as the uninterpretable features transfer according to feature inheritance theory.The revised assumption is not only applied to the case of the clause which contains PRO complement clauses but also to the subject and adjunct types.Argument type embodies common syntactic relations,such as c-command and dominance.PRO is associated to other elements in this type.According to Landau(2013),we consider that it is argument control construction when PRO-clause occupies the subject and complement position.Inspired by criteria of obligatory control and non-obligatory control,we consider that English subject argument control constructions consist of bare infinitive subject clauses and gerunds subject clauses,and complement argument control constructions are subdivided into declarative complement clauses and interrogative complement clauses.In the argument control constructions,the upper phases can detect the subordinate phases and experience gradual merging.Its specific syntactic derivation is as follows.PRO is base-derived at the spec-v*,it merges with v* to form v*P and then v*P merges with T to form T bar.T probes EPP feature of PRO and attracts it to the spec-T to form TP.T inherits uninterpretable features of null C.T delivers null case to PRO.Phase theory stipulates CP and v*P as phase,while TP and VP are the domain of phase CP and v*P respectively,and the domain should be transferred after the phase is formed.But for the special properties of null C,TP is transferred only to the semantic level as the domain of formed null CP,which conforms to the fact that PRO lacks phonetic expression.The formed CP finally derives complete sentence by step-by-step merge,all uninterpretable features are valued,and the English argument Cc is derived.Following the classification in Green(2018),we think that English adjunct control constructions are composed of temporal adverbials and rationale clauses(RatCs).The former category includes before/while/after and without types,and the latter contains remote control rationale clause and local control rationale clause.We find that the syntactic derivation of English adjunct Ccs is similar to that of English argument Ccs,and it can also be explained by the revised null case assumption and probe-and-goal theory.This thesis holds that adjunct is phase and it undergoes transfer within its ranges.Adjunct cannot be probed by the upper phase due to the special attribute of PM(pair merge).English adjunct control constructions derive as follows: PRO is base-derived in spec-v* and it merges with v* bar to form v*P.T is activated by C and then it probes PRO,and PRO obtains null case from T.PRO is moved to spec-T because of its EPP feature.T obtains uninterpretable features from C,and TP acts as domain of CP and it is transferred immediately when syntactic operation completes.Then CP merges with the preposition to form preposition phrase(PP).Since the predicate verb allocates only one argument,PP can serve as the adjunct of predicate verb and it is pair-merged with V-bar in the VP.After gone through similar syntactic derivation of English argument Ccs,the English adjunct control construction is finally formed.This assumption follows the cyclicity of phase and principle of economy.