Syntax A
Problem 4						Due Friday Oct 27



0.  The main question:

In

    (1)  Bob wants the chicken to cross the road.

How does "the chicken" get Case?

To answer this, of course, you will have to make some assumptions about the
structure.  I'm not going to help you there.

The story had better work also for 'expect', 'believe', 'intend', and 'prove'.

1.

Now that we have big PRO, we need to concern ourselves with constraining
its distribution.  If big PRO could occur anywhere, we might get unpronounced
DPs in embarrassing places:

    (2) *PRO likes chicken.	(Remember, PRO is silent)
    (3) *I like PRO.
    (4) *Just a little bit too much of PRO can ruin your whole day.

As a first approximation, let's say that PRO has to be controlled.  (We
can worry about PROarb later.)  According
to what we said in class, that means it must be coindexed with a higher DP
(in some sense; part of your task here is to determine what "higher" means).

That will account for (2)-(4).

Your task here will be to account for the following bad big PROs:

    (5) *John claims PRO is intelligent.
    (6) *John expects PRO will become a respectable golfer some day.
    (7) *John intends PRO dies rich.

In contrast to the good big PROs in:

    (8)  John claims PRO to be intelligent.
    (9)  John expects PRO to become a respectable golfer.
   (10)  John intends PRO to die rich.

What is the difference between the contexts in (5)-(7) and those in (8)-(10)?

Formulate a condition on PRO that captures this difference.

2.  Now answer Question (0) again.

3.  Reflexives and reciprocals, as illustrated below, are subject to some
interesting constraints.

   (11)  I like myself.
   (12)  We like each other.
   (13) *Myself likes cats.
   (14) *Each other like Max and Louise.
   (15) *I think my cat likes myself.
   (16) *My cat and my dog think each other are the enemy.

Considering these and other well-chosen examples, formulate a constraint
(or constraints) on the occurrence of reflexives and reciprocals.  Hint:
it will look a lot like, but not be identical to, the constraints on the
occurrence of PRO.

4.  Account for the following:

   (17)  The chicken believes itself to be a superior being.
   (18)  The candidates have shown each other to be fools.

5.  Account for the following:

   (19)  The chicken is believed to have crossed the road.
   (20)  Close tabs are expected to be kept on my whereabouts.
   (21)  There are believed to be multiple solutions to this problem.
   (22)  There are believed to be several alternatives being pursued.

6.  Answer question (0).