Partial control and the movement towards Movement

In this paper we argue for a movement-based analysis of partial control following the ideas outlined in Hornstein (1999, 2001). Partial control is problematic for a raising analysis because the overt argument and the covert argument in the embedded clause are not, by definition, strictly identical. The overt argument is a subset of the covert argument. We argue that a movement analysis accounts for partial control if we maintain the _-Criterion. Under our analysis, a DP is merged into subject position in the embedded clause and receives a _-role. Later, it raises to the matrix clause and receives another _-role from the matrix predicate. When the _-Criterion is evaluated, the chain containing this DP will fail. We posit a mechanism of Chain-Splitting, which salvages the chain by splitting the chain into two smaller chains, each bearing a single _-role. Once split, the covert chain in the embedded clause can be reinterpreted to be semantically plural, thus giving rise to partial control