Control verb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In linguistics, a control verb is a verb with an argument that is a verb and one or more arguments that are nouns, such that one of the noun arguments is semantically an argument both of the control verb and of the verb argument. For example, in "He tried to do that," tried is a control verb, where its subject he is semantically the subject both of tried and of to do.
[edit] Control and raising verbs
The term control verb is sometimes generalized somewhat to include raising verbs, which are much the same, except with a noun argument being semantically an argument only of the verb argument, not of the raising verb itself. For example, in "He seemed to do that," seemed is a raising verb, where its subject he semantically the subject of to do rather than of seemed. (Note that one could say, "It seemed that he did that," but not, *"It tried that he did that." Similarly, one could say, "That seemed to be done by him," but "That tried to be done by him" would be syntactically well-formed but would have a different, non-sensical meaning.)
As with many technical terms, both control verb and raising verb are used somewhat differently in different papers, partly because different linguistic theories may group verbs in somewhat different hierarchies.
[edit] Object- and subject-control verbs
In English and many other languages, control verbs may be classified as either subject-control, meaning that it is their (syntactic) subject that is semantically shared, or object-control, meaning that it is their (syntactic) object that is. For example, try is subject-control (as seen above), while convince is object-control: in "She convinced him to do that," him is syntactically only the direct object of convinced, but semantically also the subject of to do.
Note that a verb may be subject-control in one sentence and object-control in another. For example, in "She asked to be left alone," asked is subject-control, while in "She asked him to leave her alone," asked is object-control. Generally, when such a verb takes an object, it is implied that it is acting as an object-control verb; for example, speakers of English would likely find a bit odd the sentence "She asked him to be allowed to stay" (with the intended meaning of "She asked him for permission to stay"), initially attempting to interpret it as "She asked of him that he be allowed to stay," but they would likely understand it after a moment.
