[HPSG-L] Is *remind* an object control verb

Tibor Kiss tibor at linguistics.rub.de
Wed Aug 30 10:59:25 UTC 2017


Well, 

actually that wasn’t what I had in mind. Your example provides corroboration for the hypothesis that subject-stimulus verbs cannot be control verbs, possibly because a subtle semantic shift is applied, so that volitional and sentient influence is turned into causation. 

What I wanted to know was whether the coindexing in my example (1) is obligatory, i.e. whether it would be possible to also have (2)

(2) remind someone_i PRO_j to do something [i ≠ j]

Why do I want to know?

This is the chorus from Scott Walker’s Get behind me:

Get behind me, Get behind me
Won't you bend my ear again
I really need a friend
Get behind me, Get behind me
Remind me to remind me
Not to go back there again

Why is it that we don’t have "Remind me to remind myself“ (apart from the obvious violations of rhyme and meter inflicted by myself)?



What about the status of (3) and (4) in this regard?

(3) John reminded Sue to remind her.
(4) John reminded Sue to remind herself.

Best

T.





> Am 30.08.2017 um 09:41 schrieb Emily M. Bender <ebender at uw.edu>:
> 
> As in: "This sign reminds not to litter"?  Ew, no.
> 
> Emily
> 
> On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 9:22 AM, Tibor Kiss <tibor at linguistics.rub.de>
> wrote:
> 
>> Dear native speakers of English on this list,
>> 
>> I would like to know whether *remind*, when used with a non-finite
>> complement, should be analysed as a object control verb.
>> 
>> OALD assumes (implicitly, by paraphrase) that *remind*, when used with an
>> infinitive, is an object control verb (INFLUENCE-type in PS 1994):
>> 
>> (1) remind someone_i [PRO_i to do something]
>> 
>> I am keen to know whether *remind*+infinitive could be used as a
>> non-control-verb.
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> T.
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Emily M. Bender
> Professor, Department of Linguistics
> Check out CLMS on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/uwclma
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