Empirical challenges to the Form-Copy Theory of Control

Abstract

A series of recent works (Chomsky 2021, Chomsky et al. 2023, Chomsky 2024) offers a novel theory of Obligatory Control (OC), based on the operation Form Copy (FC), which applies in movement chains as well. In this article I offer a critical assessment of the FC theory, focusing on its empirical consequences. I argue that this theory faces significant challenges. First, it offers no satisfactory answer to the fundamental question of what makes control obligatory in many cases. Second, it ignores the mass of evidence that the controllee is a pronoun rather than a lexical NP. Third, it unnecessarily complicates phase theory. Fourth, it overgenerates structures in which the controlled copy is produced by movement (Internal Merge); and fifth, it cannot adequately handle Partial Control. For all these reasons, judgment as to the implications of (or support from) the FC theory of control for the Strong Minimalist Thesis must be suspended.