Manzini (2026): The FormCopy Theory of Control: Remarks on Landau

Manzini defends the Form Copy theory of control against Landau's challenges by unifying control with raising: the two have the same derived structure, differing only in the distribution of theta roles, since Form Copy relates identical inscriptions whatever derivation produced them. A verb with both construals shows it. Italian dovere 'must' is a control verb on its root reading and a raising verb on its epistemic one (31), and the two parses of Gianni deve berlo, one merging Gianni twice and one leaving a copy by Internal Merge, are structurally identical, with the same pair of positions related by Form Copy (dovere_transfer). The unification has a cost Manzini draws herself: a condition stated on the structure Transfer sees cannot tell the parses apart (structural_iff), so partial control without partial raising must come from the derivational history (§5.2).

Implementation notes

The theta roles that separate the parses, two on the root reading and one on the epistemic, are not represented. The overt controlled pronouns Landau cites are, for Manzini, partial copies of the controller (fn. 5); Form Copy as defined relates only structurally identical inscriptions, so they fall outside it (Landau2024b.pronoun_not_mem_copyRel).

References

• [Man26]
• [Lan24b]
• [CSB+23]

def Manzini2026.tok (c : Minimalist.Cat) (sel : Minimalist.SelStack) (pf : String) (i : ℕ) : Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

A token of the simple lexical item of category c selecting sel, pronounced pf.

Equations

• Manzini2026.tok c sel pf i = { item := Minimalist.LexicalItem.of c sel pf, id := i }

def Manzini2026.gianni : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

Gianni, the matrix subject of (31a).

Equations

• Manzini2026.gianni = ↑(Manzini2026.tok Minimalist.Cat.N [] "Gianni" 0)

def Manzini2026.gianni' : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

Gianni from a fresh token, the embedded subject of the root parse.

Equations

• Manzini2026.gianni' = ↑(Manzini2026.tok Minimalist.Cat.N [] "Gianni" 3)

noncomputable def Manzini2026.berlo : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

berlo 'drink it'.

Equations

• Manzini2026.berlo = (↑(Manzini2026.tok Minimalist.Cat.V [Minimalist.Cat.D] "bere" 4)).merge ↑(Manzini2026.tok Minimalist.Cat.D [] "lo" 5)

noncomputable def Manzini2026.rootParse : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

The root parse of (31a), a control structure: Gianni is merged into the theta positions of both dovere and bere.

Equations

• Manzini2026.rootParse = Manzini2026.gianni.merge ((↑(Manzini2026.tok Minimalist.Cat.V [Minimalist.Cat.V] "deve" 1)).merge (Manzini2026.gianni'.merge Manzini2026.berlo))

noncomputable def Manzini2026.epistemicParse : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

(31a) on the epistemic reading of dovere that (31b) shows, a raising structure: Gianni is merged once and its copy left in the embedded subject position by Internal Merge.

Equations

• Manzini2026.epistemicParse = Manzini2026.gianni.merge ((↑(Manzini2026.tok Minimalist.Cat.V [Minimalist.Cat.V] "deve" 1)).merge (Manzini2026.gianni.merge Manzini2026.berlo))

theorem Manzini2026.dovere_transfer : rootParse.StructurallyIdentical epistemicParse ∧ (gianni, gianni') ∈ rootParse.copyRel ∧ (gianni, gianni) ∈ epistemicParse.copyRel

The two parses of (31a) coincide at Transfer: they are structurally identical, and Form Copy relates the matrix subject to the embedded one in each, a repetition in the root parse and the Internal Merge copy in the epistemic one.

theorem Manzini2026.structural_iff (P : Minimalist.SyntacticObject → Prop) (hP : ∀ (a b : Minimalist.SyntacticObject), a.StructurallyIdentical b → (P a ↔ P b)) : P rootParse ↔ P epistemicParse

A condition on the structure Transfer sees holds of the root parse exactly when it holds of the epistemic one, so what separates control from raising, partial control among it, must be read off the derivation (§5.2).