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Non-canonical Control in a Cross-linguistic Perspective
Edited by Anne Mucha, Jutta M. Hartmann and Beata Trawiński
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 270] 2021
► pp. 259–286

The (null) subject of adjunct infinitives in spoken Spanish

| University of Vienna

In this paper, I present a corpus study of adjunct infinitives in spoken Spanish, investigating null and overt subjects with respect to their control properties. I provide quantitative as well as qualitative data which show that (i) some instances of (null) subjects in adjunct infinitives do not easily fall into a division of predicative vs. logophoric control (Williams 1992), but that topicality is a relevant factor as well (Landau 2013, 2019), and (ii) control in spoken Spanish adjunct infinitives is a scalar phenomenon, being located at the syntax-pragmatics interface.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Adjunct control between predication and logophoricity
  • 3.The (null) subject of Spanish adjunct infinitives – PRO or pro?
  • 4.A corpus study of adjunct infinitives in spoken Spanish
    • 4.1The data
    • 4.2Annotating controller choice for quantitative analysis
    • 4.3Results
    • 4.4Discussion
  • 5.Adjunct control in spoken Spanish data – some observations
  • 6.Towards an analysis: Discourse linking via C and preference scales for control
    • 6.1The case of null subjects in adjunct infinitives
    • 6.2The case of overt subjects in adjunct infinitives
    • 6.3On differences between types of adjunct infinitives
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 17 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.270.09her
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