The movement theory of control by Hornstein (1999, 2001) presents that obligatory control should be reduced to movement. However, his theory raises a serious problem, especially with respect to the implicit argument control. I argue that control is not a residue of an overt movement, because the movement theory of control does not provide any account for the implicit argument control. The adequate theory of control should provide an account for the implicit argument control as well as the classical obligatory control, since the implicit control should be treated as a core case of obligatory control. In this paper, I propose a new control theory in terms of Merge Operation within the Minimalist Program. The most immediate argument merged with PRO-clause in the course of derivation is the controller for PRO. The controller can be extended to both DP and PP, as a complement argument of a verb, and to both explicit and implicit arguments.
1. Introduction 2. OC Conditions in the Movement Theory of Control 3. A New Proposal on Control 4. Solutions to the Problems in the Movement Theory of Control 5. Conclusion References