Arbitrary Control
Arbitrary control occurs when the controller is understood to be anybody in general, e.g.
-
- Reading the Dead Sea Scrolls is fun.
- Seeing is believing.
-
- Having to do something repeatedly is boring.
The understood subject of the gerunds in these sentence is non-discriminate; any generic person will do. In such cases, control is said to be "arbitrary". Any time the understood subject of a given predicate is not present in the linguistic or situational context, a generic subject (e.g. 'one') is understood.
Read more about this topic: Control (linguistics)
Famous quotes containing the words arbitrary and/or control:
“Poetry is a very complex art.... It is an art of pure sound bound in through an art of arbitrary and conventional symbols.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)