Control (linguistics) - Control Vs. Raising

Control Vs. Raising

Control must be distinguished from raising, since the two can be outwardly similar. Control predicates semantically select their arguments, as stated above. Raising predicates, in contrast, do not semantically select (at least) one of their dependents. The contrast is evident with the so-called raising-to-object verbs (=ECM-verbs) such as believe, expect, want, and prove. Compare the following a- and b-sentences:

a. Fred asked you to read it.

b. Fred expects you to read it.

a. Jim forced her to say it.

b. Jim believed her to have said it.

The control predicates ask and force semantically select their object arguments, whereas the raising-to-object verbs do not. Instead, the object of the raising verb appears to have "risen" from the subject position of the embedded predicate, in this case from the embedded predicates to read and to have said. In other words, the embedded predicate is semantically selecting the argument of the matrix predicate. What this means is that while a raising-to-object verb takes an object dependent, that dependent is not a semantic argument of that raising verb. The distinction becomes apparent when one considers that a control predicate like ask requires its object to be an animate entity, whereas a raising-to-object predicate like expects places no semantic limitations on its object dependent.

The different predicate types can be identified using expletive there. Expletive there can appear as the "object" of a raising-to-object predicate, but not of a control verb, e.g.

a. *Fred asked there to be a party.

b. Fred expects there to be a party.

a. *Jim forced there to be a party.

b. Jim believes there to have been a party.

The control predicates cannot take expletive there because there does not fulfill the semantic requirements of the control predicates. Since the raising-to-object predicates do not select their objects, they can easily take expletive there.