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. 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. We also tackle the behaviour of modal verbs as either Control or Raising verbs, showing that epistemic as well as deontic verbs display raising behaviour (cf. Wurmbrand 1999), whereas subject-oriented dynamic modals are closer to Control behaviour

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

Wurmbrand, S. 1999. Modal Verbs Must be Raising Verbs, WCCFL 18 Proceedings, in S. Bird, A. Carnie, J. Haugen, P. Norquest (eds). 599-612. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. pdf