The course starts with an overview of the four types of infinitival constructions in English (PRO-to, For-to, Nominative+Infinitive (Subject to Subject Raising) and Accusative + Infinitive (ECM/Subject to Object Raising). After briefly discussing each, it addresses more in depth the differences between Control and Raising constructions in terms of types of empty category involved (PRO vs NP-trace), the underlying syntactic operations ((Equi-NP) deletion vs movement), types of triggers, clause size, number of case and theta-chains. It proposes to discuss the underlying differences between apparently similar surface structures, e.g., the distinction between Subject Control and Subject-to-Subject Raising (i.e., Johni tried [PROi to like syntax] vs Johni seems [ti to like syntax]), as well as the distinction between Object Control and Accusative + Infinitive (i.e. Johni forced Mary/herj [PROj to cook dinner] vs Johni expects Mary/herj [tj to cook dinner). For the latter pair, several tests are discussed which confirm that the accusative-marked DP is not an argument of the main clause predicate, but is base-generated within the infintival verb (substituting the infinitival complement with a finite that-clause, replacement of the infinitive via a pronominal, deletion and recoverability in context). Also, arguments for Raising in Acc+Inf constructions (cf. Postal 1974) are briefly discussed (vs simply ECM with the embedded subject remaining in the non-finite complement clause). The final part of the course steers back to the more general Control/Raising distinction, discussing tests meant to tease them apart, such as the use of expletives, (preservation of) idiomatic meaning, equivalence under passivization and scope ambiguity.

Reading:
Rosenbaum, P.S. 1967. The grammar of English predicate complement constructions, MIT Press
Postal, P.M. 1974. On Raising: One rule of English grammar and its theoretical implications, MIT Press
Chomsky, N. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris.
Bresnan, J.W. 1982. Control and Complementation. Linguistic Inquiry, 13(3), 343-434
Rooryck, J. 2004. On the Distinction between Raising and Control Verbs, Leiden University
Landau, I. 2013. Control in Generative Grammar: A Research Companion, Cambridge University Press