Idan Landau
Biographic Data
| ID | 956789 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Idan Landau |
| GIVEN NAMES | Idan |
| FAMILY NAME | Landau |
| SIGNATURE | LANDAU I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5583-1798 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 483 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Silent Resumption: A New Test for Ellipsis
While extraction out of silent anaphors is deservedly considered one of the strongest tests for the existence of silent structure in the anaphoric site (ellipsis), in many environments considered to be elliptical it is not applicable, either because the ellipsis site is an inherent barrier or because it is rendered inaccessible to syntactic operations by virtue of ellipsis itself. I propose that this obstacle can be bypassed by testing whether th…
Reciprocal shift and symmetry breaking
Bipartite reciprocal phrases are common in Indo-European, Indo-Aryan, and Semitic languages. When occurring with a case particle (K) or a preposition (P), K/P intervenes between the two units of the reciprocal phrase, producing an otherwise exceptional K/P-medial KP/PP. While diachronic descriptions successfully trace the origin of the two units to separate constituents that have gradually become closer, they fall short of explaining the stabilit…
Type-Restricted Argument Ellipsis and Generalized Quantifiers
Theories of argument ellipsis based on PF deletion or LF copying do not generate predictions regarding possible constraints on the semantic type of the elided argument. Yet such constraints obtain, as documented in Landau 2022: only type-e arguments can be targeted by argument ellipsis. Focusing on quantificational arguments here, I show that when they yield readings expressible by type-e denotations, they may elide, but when they denote genuine …
Empirical challenges to the Form-Copy Theory of Control
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 con…
Noncanonical Obligatory Control
Intensive research on Obligatory Control (OC) in the past 2 decades has revealed a rich crosslinguistic terrain of deviations from the classical format. Five types of noncanonical OC are surveyed here: Finite control, controlled overt pronouns, partial control, proxy control and crossed control. Each one is described and illustrated, paying attention to methodological difficulties in establishing its characteristic empirical signature. We then tu…
Force mismatch in clausal ellipsis
Recent studies reveal that the values of finiteness, tense, modality and polarity in a clause elided under sluicing may be distinct from their correlates in the antecedent clause. Focusing on CP ellipsis in Hebrew (an instance of Argument Ellipsis), we first demonstrate that it is distinct from both Null Complement Anaphora and (null) pronominalization, and then show that the values of force (declarative, imperative, interrogative) can be distinc…
Argument ellipsis as external merge after transfer
More doubts on verb‐stranding VP ellipsis: Reply to Simpson 2023
Advocating a verb‐stranding‐VP‐ellipsis analysis for object‐gap sentences, Andrew Simpson (“In defense of verb‐stranding VP ellipsis”) argues that under negation the “adjunct reading” is missing because it depends on focal stress, which cannot be realized on unpronounced material. No such condition holds, I maintain, and the absence of the adjunct reading reflects a syntactic absence: argument‐ellipsis sites contain no VP adjuncts. The adjunct re…
Ellipsis with a Coordinated Antecedent: An Alternative to V‐stranding VP ‐ellipsis
Gribanova (2013b) observes that when the antecedent clause for an object gap in Russian contains a disjunction of ditransitive VP s, the gap is interpreted as if it contained the disjunction, thus favoring a V‐stranding VP ‐ellipsis ( VSVPE ) analysis over a simple Argument Ellipsis ( AE ) analysis. We show that VSVPE fails to predict the attested interpretation of the gap when the antecedent VP contains a con junction. The data are fully explain…
Duality of control in gerundive complements of P
Sentences like They tricked him into believing them and They charged him with abandoning them raise interesting issues for selection and control. We show that these two sentences exemplify two distinct classes, subsuming P-gerund constructions that are formed with seven distinct prepositions: implicative vs. nonimplicative constructions. The first class displays a cluster of restrictions, both syntactic and semantic, which are absent from the sec…
Nonobligatory Control with Communication Verbs: New Evidence and Implications
When occurring without their goal argument, communication verbs induce two types of control: obligatory control (OC) by the implicit goal, or nonobligatory control (NOC) by a salient antecedent. Arguments are presented to demonstrate that the two are genuinely distinct, and furthermore, that the NOC option is not reducible to embedded imperatives. The two types of control implicate the same grammatical representations, the single difference being…
Constraining Head-Stranding Ellipsis
Ellipsis of a constituent whose head has moved out of it ("headless ellipsis") is possible in some cases but not in others. Headless ellipsis is licensed only if the stranded head has not crossed a Spell-Out domain. The reason is that the silencing instruction responsible for ellipsis must be PF-visible on the head of the elided constituent, and PF-visibility is cut off at Spell-Out domain boundaries. A parallel effect is observed with remnants o…
On the Nonexistence of Verb-Stranding VP-Ellipsis
An increasingly popular analysis of object gap sentences in many languages derives them in two steps: (a) V-raising out of VP, and (b) VP-ellipsis of the remnant, stranding the verb (V-stranding VP-ellipsis, VSVPE). For Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, and Portuguese, I show this analysis to be inadequate. First, it undergenerates elliptical objects in various environments, and second, it overgenerates nonexisting adjunct-including readings. For all the p…
A Scope Argument against T-to-C Movement in Sluicing
Most accounts of sluicing assume it is derived byTPdeletion atPF; however, C′ deletion is a viable option, which is even better equipped to explain the Sluicing-Comp Generalization. Nonetheless, this article shows that C′ deletion must be rejected, because it predicts scope enhancement for modals that raise to C in sluicing when in fact they take scope in T or below it. An implication is that some independent principle must block T-to-C movement …
DP-internal semantic agreement: A configurational analysis
Against The Null Comitative Analysis of Partial Control
In partial control (PC), the null subject of a (typically) nonfinite complement is understood to be a group consisting of the referent of the matrix controller plus some other contextually salient individual(s) (Wilkinson 1971, Landau 2000, 2013).1On one analysis, PC PRO is syntactically singular but semantically plural at LF, like standard collective nouns (e.g., team, committee). A silent operator, licensed by certain matrix verbs, expands the …
Agreement at PF: An Argument from Partial Control
Controlled null subjects (PRO) are semantically bound variables that bear morphological features. In certain environments of partial control, the morphological φ-features (specifically, [person]) and the semantic value of PRO diverge. A natural explanation of the fact that the [person] feature of PRO is uninterpreted is that it is assigned at Phonological Form (PF). Given that this feature participates in agreement relations, we conclude that agr…
A Two-Tiered Theory of Control
A theory of control, equally grounded in syntax and semantics, that argues that obligatory control is achieved either through predication or through logophoric anchoring. This book revives and reinterprets a persistent intuition running through much of the classical work: that the unitary appearance of Obligatory Control into complements conceals an underlying duality of structure and mechanism. Idan Landau argues that control complements divide …
Control in Generative Grammar: A Research Companion
The subject of nonfinite clauses is often missing, and yet is understood to refer to some linguistic or contextual referent (e.g. 'Bill preferred __ to remain silent' is understood as 'Bill preferred that he himself would remain silent'). This dependency is the subject matter of control theory. Extensive linguistic research into control constructions over the past five decades has unearthed a wealth of empirical findings in dozens of languages. T…
Clear from and clear of: The asymmetric syntax of detaching
Verbs of detaching (clear, wipe, squeeze, etc.) may occur in two frames in Hebrew. In the Change of Location (COL) frame, the stuff is a direct object and the location is a locative source PP. In the Change of State (COS) frame, the location is a direct object and the stuff is an oblique PP. We demonstrate that this PP is headed by a null preposition, which is responsible for a cluster of peculiar syntactic effects. COL and COS in the two frames …
Predication vs. aboutness in copy raising
Early child control
Alleged broad subjects in Hebrew: A rejoinder to Doron and Heycock (in press)
The Explicit Syntax of Implicit Arguments
Although they participate in control relations, implicit arguments are standardly viewed as unprojected θ-roles, absent from the syntax. I challenge this view and argue that implicit arguments are syntactically represented. The argument rests on the observation that implicit arguments can exercise partial control, and the claim that partial control must be encoded in the syntax (given plausible assumptions on the limits of lexical relations). I f…
Saturation and reification in adjectival diathesis
The study of adjectival diathesis alternations lags behind the study of verbal diathesis and nominalization. This paper aims to diminish the gap by applying to the adjectival domain theoretical tools with proven success elsewhere. We focus on evaluative adjectives, which display a systematic alternation between a basic variant ( John was rude ) and a derived one ( That was rude of John ). The alternation brings about a cluster of syntactic and se…
The Scale of Finiteness and the Calculus of Control
Movement Out of Control
This article is a comprehensive critique of the reductionist view of control advocated in recent minimalist studies, most notably Hornstein 1999. The core of this view is the claim that obligatory control should be collapsed with raising, and nonobligatory control with pronominal coreference. I argue that Hornstein's theory (a) overgenerates nonexisting structures and interpretations, (b) fails to derive a wide range of well-known raising/control…
Control in Generative Grammar: A Research Companion
The subject of nonfinite clauses is often missing, and yet is understood to refer to some linguistic or contextual referent (e.g. 'Bill preferred __ to remain silent' is understood as 'Bill preferred that he himself would remain silent'). This dependency is the subject matter of control theory. Extensive linguistic research into control constructions over the past five decades has unearthed a wealth of empirical findings in dozens of languages. T…
Chain Resolution In Hebrew V(P)-fronting
The copy theory of movement receives the strongest form of support from instances of movement leaving phonetically visible copies. Such is the case in Hebrew V(P)-fronting, where the fronted verb surfaces as an infinitive, and its "trace" is pronounced as an inflected verbal copy. This paper argues that V-doubling is explained by the same algorithm that determines pronunciation of single copies in canonical chains. The phonetic resolution of chai…
The Explicit Syntax of Implicit Arguments
Although they participate in control relations, implicit arguments are standardly viewed as unprojected θ-roles, absent from the syntax. I challenge this view and argue that implicit arguments are syntactically represented. The argument rests on the observation that implicit arguments can exercise partial control, and the claim that partial control must be encoded in the syntax (given plausible assumptions on the limits of lexical relations). I f…
Severing the Distribution of PRO from Case
Deriving the distribution of PRO in a principled manner is a central task for the theory of control. Traditionally, Case has been identified as the key to this problem: PRO was argued to bear no Case at all, or some special (''null'') Case. I argue that PRO bears standard case like normal lexical DPs; clear evidence comes from languages with case-concord (Russian, Hungarian, Icelandic). Moreover, PRO (and obligatory control) may occur in finite c…
Possessor raising and the structure of VP
Two routes of control: Evidence from case transmission in Russian
EPP Extensions
The fact that the specifier of T0 is subject both to the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) and to the Empty Category Principle (ECP) has remained an unexplained accident within Government-Binding Theory. I propose a principled account of this correlation. The EPP is a selectional requirement of functional heads (e.g., T, Top, C) that applies at PF-an instance of p-selection for an overt element. Like all selectional requirements, it applies to …
DP-internal semantic agreement: A configurational analysis
Icelandic Control Is Not A-Movement: The Case from Case
A rich literature on Icelandic syntax has established that infinitival complements of obligatory control verbs constitute a case assignment domain independent from the matrix clause, and in this differ systematically from all types of A-movement, which manifest case dependence/preservation. As Landau (2003) has observed, these facts provide significant counterevidence to the movement theory of control (Hornstein 1999 and subsequent work). Boeckx …
Constraints on Partial VP-fronting
Partial VP-fronting, in which a verb is fronted with one argument, stranding the other one, is subject to a curious restriction in both Hebrew and English: The fronted VP-portion must be a potential independent VP in the language. It is shown that both incremental merger and remnant VP-fronting cannot explain the restriction, whereas an analysis incorporating late adjunction of the stranded argument can. Late adjunction, in turn, cannot apply too…
Saturation and reification in adjectival diathesis
The study of adjectival diathesis alternations lags behind the study of verbal diathesis and nominalization. This paper aims to diminish the gap by applying to the adjectival domain theoretical tools with proven success elsewhere. We focus on evaluative adjectives, which display a systematic alternation between a basic variant ( John was rude ) and a derived one ( That was rude of John ). The alternation brings about a cluster of syntactic and se…
Agreement at PF: An Argument from Partial Control
Controlled null subjects (PRO) are semantically bound variables that bear morphological features. In certain environments of partial control, the morphological φ-features (specifically, [person]) and the semantic value of PRO diverge. A natural explanation of the fact that the [person] feature of PRO is uninterpreted is that it is assigned at Phonological Form (PF). Given that this feature participates in agreement relations, we conclude that agr…
Control And Extraposition: The Case Of Super-Equi
On the Nonexistence of Verb-Stranding VP-Ellipsis
An increasingly popular analysis of object gap sentences in many languages derives them in two steps: (a) V-raising out of VP, and (b) VP-ellipsis of the remnant, stranding the verb (V-stranding VP-ellipsis, VSVPE). For Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, and Portuguese, I show this analysis to be inadequate. First, it undergenerates elliptical objects in various environments, and second, it overgenerates nonexisting adjunct-including readings. For all the p…
Against broad subjects in Hebrew
Constraining Head-Stranding Ellipsis
Ellipsis of a constituent whose head has moved out of it ("headless ellipsis") is possible in some cases but not in others. Headless ellipsis is licensed only if the stranded head has not crossed a Spell-Out domain. The reason is that the silencing instruction responsible for ellipsis must be PF-visible on the head of the elided constituent, and PF-visibility is cut off at Spell-Out domain boundaries. A parallel effect is observed with remnants o…
Predication vs. aboutness in copy raising
(Un)interpretable Neg in Comp
This article explores the possibility that the distinction between interpretable (valued) and uninterpretable (unvalued) features has grammatical manifestations beyond its role in feature checking. I argue that both selection and lexical insertion are sensitive to this distinction; thus, a head may determine not only which features its complement must bear but also whether they should be interpretableor not. Empirical consequences are explored in…
This Construction Looks Like a Copy Is Optional
April 01 2009 This Construction Looks Like a Copy Is Optional In Special Collection: CogNet Idan Landau Idan Landau Ben Gurion University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Idan Landau Ben Gurion University Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2009 Linguistic Inquiry (2009) 40 (2): 343–346. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2009.40.2.343 …
Argument ellipsis as external merge after transfer
Against The Null Comitative Analysis of Partial Control
In partial control (PC), the null subject of a (typically) nonfinite complement is understood to be a group consisting of the referent of the matrix controller plus some other contextually salient individual(s) (Wilkinson 1971, Landau 2000, 2013).1On one analysis, PC PRO is syntactically singular but semantically plural at LF, like standard collective nouns (e.g., team, committee). A silent operator, licensed by certain matrix verbs, expands the …
Alleged broad subjects in Hebrew: A rejoinder to Doron and Heycock (in press)
Type-Restricted Argument Ellipsis and Generalized Quantifiers
Theories of argument ellipsis based on PF deletion or LF copying do not generate predictions regarding possible constraints on the semantic type of the elided argument. Yet such constraints obtain, as documented in Landau 2022: only type-e arguments can be targeted by argument ellipsis. Focusing on quantificational arguments here, I show that when they yield readings expressible by type-e denotations, they may elide, but when they denote genuine …
Hierarchical structure in schematic representations: Aspects of meaning in the cinematic shot
Psych-adjectives and semantic selection
A puzzling generalization, first noted by Faraci (1974), states that (non-causative) psychological adjectives tolerate at most a subject gap in their infinitival complement whereas non-psychological adjectives require exactly one gap (either subject or object). This paper argues that the generalization follows from the fact that the infinitive is a (propositional) argument of a psych adjective but a (predicative) modifier of a non-psych adjective…
Possessor raising and the structure of VP
Elements of Control: Structure and Meaning in Infinitival Constructions
Control And Extraposition: The Case Of Super-Equi
(Un)interpretable Neg in Comp
This article explores the possibility that the distinction between interpretable (valued) and uninterpretable (unvalued) features has grammatical manifestations beyond its role in feature checking. I argue that both selection and lexical insertion are sensitive to this distinction; thus, a head may determine not only which features its complement must bear but also whether they should be interpretableor not. Empirical consequences are explored in…
Movement Out of Control
This article is a comprehensive critique of the reductionist view of control advocated in recent minimalist studies, most notably Hornstein 1999. The core of this view is the claim that obligatory control should be collapsed with raising, and nonobligatory control with pronominal coreference. I argue that Hornstein's theory (a) overgenerates nonexisting structures and interpretations, (b) fails to derive a wide range of well-known raising/control…
The Scale of Finiteness and the Calculus of Control
Chain Resolution In Hebrew V(P)-fronting
The copy theory of movement receives the strongest form of support from instances of movement leaving phonetically visible copies. Such is the case in Hebrew V(P)-fronting, where the fronted verb surfaces as an infinitive, and its "trace" is pronounced as an inflected verbal copy. This paper argues that V-doubling is explained by the same algorithm that determines pronunciation of single copies in canonical chains. The phonetic resolution of chai…
Severing the Distribution of PRO from Case
Deriving the distribution of PRO in a principled manner is a central task for the theory of control. Traditionally, Case has been identified as the key to this problem: PRO was argued to bear no Case at all, or some special (''null'') Case. I argue that PRO bears standard case like normal lexical DPs; clear evidence comes from languages with case-concord (Russian, Hungarian, Icelandic). Moreover, PRO (and obligatory control) may occur in finite c…
EPP Extensions
The fact that the specifier of T0 is subject both to the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) and to the Empty Category Principle (ECP) has remained an unexplained accident within Government-Binding Theory. I propose a principled account of this correlation. The EPP is a selectional requirement of functional heads (e.g., T, Top, C) that applies at PF-an instance of p-selection for an overt element. Like all selectional requirements, it applies to …
Constraints on Partial VP-fronting
Partial VP-fronting, in which a verb is fronted with one argument, stranding the other one, is subject to a curious restriction in both Hebrew and English: The fronted VP-portion must be a potential independent VP in the language. It is shown that both incremental merger and remnant VP-fronting cannot explain the restriction, whereas an analysis incorporating late adjunction of the stranded argument can. Late adjunction, in turn, cannot apply too…
Two routes of control: Evidence from case transmission in Russian
Saturation and reification in adjectival diathesis
The study of adjectival diathesis alternations lags behind the study of verbal diathesis and nominalization. This paper aims to diminish the gap by applying to the adjectival domain theoretical tools with proven success elsewhere. We focus on evaluative adjectives, which display a systematic alternation between a basic variant ( John was rude ) and a derived one ( That was rude of John ). The alternation brings about a cluster of syntactic and se…
Icelandic Control Is Not A-Movement: The Case from Case
A rich literature on Icelandic syntax has established that infinitival complements of obligatory control verbs constitute a case assignment domain independent from the matrix clause, and in this differ systematically from all types of A-movement, which manifest case dependence/preservation. As Landau (2003) has observed, these facts provide significant counterevidence to the movement theory of control (Hornstein 1999 and subsequent work). Boeckx …
Against broad subjects in Hebrew
This Construction Looks Like a Copy Is Optional
April 01 2009 This Construction Looks Like a Copy Is Optional In Special Collection: CogNet Idan Landau Idan Landau Ben Gurion University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Idan Landau Ben Gurion University Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2009 Linguistic Inquiry (2009) 40 (2): 343–346. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2009.40.2.343 …
The Explicit Syntax of Implicit Arguments
Although they participate in control relations, implicit arguments are standardly viewed as unprojected θ-roles, absent from the syntax. I challenge this view and argue that implicit arguments are syntactically represented. The argument rests on the observation that implicit arguments can exercise partial control, and the claim that partial control must be encoded in the syntax (given plausible assumptions on the limits of lexical relations). I f…
Predication vs. aboutness in copy raising
Early child control
Alleged broad subjects in Hebrew: A rejoinder to Doron and Heycock (in press)
Clear from and clear of: The asymmetric syntax of detaching
Verbs of detaching (clear, wipe, squeeze, etc.) may occur in two frames in Hebrew. In the Change of Location (COL) frame, the stuff is a direct object and the location is a locative source PP. In the Change of State (COS) frame, the location is a direct object and the stuff is an oblique PP. We demonstrate that this PP is headed by a null preposition, which is responsible for a cluster of peculiar syntactic effects. COL and COS in the two frames …
Control in Generative Grammar: A Research Companion
The subject of nonfinite clauses is often missing, and yet is understood to refer to some linguistic or contextual referent (e.g. 'Bill preferred __ to remain silent' is understood as 'Bill preferred that he himself would remain silent'). This dependency is the subject matter of control theory. Extensive linguistic research into control constructions over the past five decades has unearthed a wealth of empirical findings in dozens of languages. T…
A Two-Tiered Theory of Control
A theory of control, equally grounded in syntax and semantics, that argues that obligatory control is achieved either through predication or through logophoric anchoring. This book revives and reinterprets a persistent intuition running through much of the classical work: that the unitary appearance of Obligatory Control into complements conceals an underlying duality of structure and mechanism. Idan Landau argues that control complements divide …
DP-internal semantic agreement: A configurational analysis
Computer Science (35 works) · Linguistics (34 works) · Philosophy (34 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (34 works) · Mathematics (23 works) · Artificial Intelligence (16 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (14 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (13 works) · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis (12 works)