njemački

Zur Identifikation leerer Subjekte in infinitivischen Komplementsätzen - ein semantisch-pragmatisches Modell

The interpretation of empty elements, ie, signs that have no phonetic realization, constitutes a "classical" problem in modern linguistics. Null elements have been postulated on various levels of the linguistic system & its pragmatic use, in particular, in morphology & syntax. An adequate theory of discourse comprehension also requires an account of what is not said but only conversationally implicated. In the last 30 years, the interpretation of empty subjects in non-finite clauses, which is known as the "control problem, " has attracted the attention of many formal syntacticians. It has, however, become increasingly clear that the interpretation of such empty elements is only minimally guided by syntactic principles ; in addition, a number of semantic & pragmatic factors have to be taken into consideration. The aim of our contribution is to sketch a cognitively based theory of "obligatory“ control that explains how general control principles interact with language-specific coding devices. We focus on German data ; we surmise, however, that they also hold for other languages. In particular, we aim at elucidating the interplay of syntactic, semantic, & pragmatic information in the comprehension of empty subjects in non-finite complement clauses. Using German &, to a lesser extent, English examples, we will demonstrate that the control principles we postulate account for numerous control verbs & control verb classes.

subject; control; syntax; grammar; cognitive processes; pragmatics

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