Infinitival Subjects and Phase-based Feature-checking

Infinitival Subjects and Phase-based Feature-checking

Studies since Postal (1974) have called attention to the infinitival subject in English. Two noteworthy opposite views have materialized with regard to whether object moves overtly or covertly: Lasnik's (l999a,b) overt object movement and Chomsky's (1993, 1995a) covert object movement. The phase-based theory will provide the clue to settle the troublesome matters involving overt/covert object movement in infinitive constructions. I will account for the feature/case-checking and movement of the infinitival subjects of believe-, want-, and persuade-type verbs from the perspective of Chomsky's (1998, 1999) phase-based approach. The completeness of to-infinitive T is responsible for the structural differences of these infinitives. Post verb NPs are analyzed differently on the basis of the completeness of to-T. Tcomp can be divided into three kinds depending on whether it takes PRO or NP or both for its infinitival subject and whether it takes the complementizer for or not.