Control Verbs Vs. Auxiliary Verbs
Control predicates have semantic content; they semantically select their arguments, that is, their appearance strongly influences the nature of the arguments they take. In this regard, they are much different from auxiliary verbs, which lack semantic content and do not semantically select arguments. Compare the following pairs of sentences:
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- a. Sam will go.
- b. Sam yearns to go.
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- a. Jim has to do it.
- b. Jim refuses to do it.
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- a. Jill would lie and cheat.
- b. Jill attempted to lie and cheat.
The a-sentences contain auxiliary verbs that do not select the subject argument. What this means is that the embedded verbs go, do, and lie and cheat are responsible for semantically selecting the subject argument. The point is that while control verbs may have the same outward appearance as auxiliary verbs, the two verb types are quite different.
Read more about this topic: Control (linguistics)
Famous quotes containing the words control and/or verbs:
“If someone does something we disapprove of, we regard him as bad if we believe we can deter him from persisting in his conduct, but we regard him as mad if we believe we cannot. In either case, the crucial issue is our control of the other: the more we lose control over him, and the more he assumes control over himself, the more, in case of conflict, we are likely to consider him mad rather than just bad.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“He crafted his writing and loved listening to those tiny explosions when the active brutality of verbs in revolution raced into sweet established nouns to send marching across the page a newly commissioned army of words-on-maneuvers, all decorated in loops, frets, and arrowlike flourishes.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)