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4.2.Finite and infinitival argument clauses

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We need to distinguish between finite and infinitival argument clauses. The examples in (16) show that the choice depends on the matrix verb: whereas propositional verbs like zeggen'to say' or beweren'to claim' can take either a finite or an infinitival clause, an irrealis verb like proberen'to try' is only compatible with an infinitival clause. Note that we assume that the infinitival clauses in the primed examples contain a phonetically empty pronominal element PRO that functions as the implied subject of the infinitival clause; we will discuss this element in more detail in Section 4.3.

a.	Jan beweert/zegt	[dat	hij	morgen	komt].	finite clause
	Jan claims/says	that	he	tomorrow	comes
	'Jan claims that heʼll come tomorrow.'

a'.	Jan beweert /zegt [PRO	morgen	te komen].	te-infinitival
	Jan claims/says	tomorrow	to come
	'Jan claims to come tomorrow.'

b.	*	Jan probeert	[dat	hij	morgen	komt].	finite clause
		Jan tries	that	he	tomorrow	comes

b'.	Jan probeert [PRO	morgen	te komen].	te-infinitival
	Jan tries	tomorrow	to come
	'Jan tries to come tomorrow.'

Replacing finite interrogative clauses by infinitival ones does not seem to be always possible. Although example (17a') is acceptable, it belongs to a more formal register of the language—in speech we only find more or less fixed forms like Hij vroeg me wat t e doen'he asked me what he was supposed to do'. Example (17b') is also acceptable, but the verb does not introduce a question; instead the embedded clause has the function of a request.

a.	Jan vroeg	me	[hoe	hij	die auto	kon	repareren].	finite clause
	Jan asked	me	how	he	that car	could	repair
	'Jan asked me how he could repair that car.'

a'.		Jan vroeg me	[hoe PRO	die auto	te repareren].	te-infinitival
		Jan asked me	how	that car	to repair

b.	Jan vroeg	Marie	[of	ze	kwam].	finite clause
	Jan asked	Marie	whether	she	came
	'Jan asked (= inquired from) Marie whether sheʼd come.'

b'.	Jan vroeg	Marie [PRO	te komen].	te-infinitival
	Jan asked	Marie	to come
	'Jan asked (= requested from) Marie to come.'

That the verb determines the form of the clausal argument is also clear from the examples in (18), which show that while perception verbs like zien'to see' exhibit an alternation between finite and non-finite complement clauses, the causative/permission verb laten allows infinitival clauses only.

a.		Jan zag [dat	Marie	vertrok].	finite clause
		Jan saw that	Marie	left

a'.	Jan zag	[Marie	(*te)	vertrekken].	bare infinitival
	Jan saw	Marie	to	leave
	'Jan saw Marie leave.'

b.	*	Jan laat	[dat	Marie	vertrekt].	finite clause
		Jan lets	that	Marie	leaves

b'.		Jan laat	[Marie	(*te)	vertrekken].	bare infinitival
		Jan lets	Marie	to	leave

A comparison of the primed examples in (18) with those in (16) shows us that the verb also determines the type of infinitival clause; whereas the verbs in (16) take te-infinitivals, the verbs in (18) take bare infinitivals. Section 5.2 will provide a brief introduction to the different types of infinitival clauses.
It seems that there are only few verbs that can be combined with a finite but not with an infinitival declarative object clause. Manner of speech verbs seem to prefer a finite clause as their complement, but judgments on the corresponding infinitival constructions appear to differ from case to case and from person to person. This is clear from a Google search (3/16/2012) on the string [ V finite * te zullen] for various tense forms of the matrix verbs roepen'to call', schreeuwen'to yell' and huilen'to cry'. while there are countless examples in which these verbs are followed by a finite declarative clause, our search resulted in only a small number of cases in which they were followed by an infinitival clause. We found a relatively large number of examples such as (19a') with the verb roepen, but only two examples such as (19b') with the verb schreeuwen, and no examples such as (19c') with the verb huilen'to cry'. Nevertheless, the primed examples all seem passable for at least some of the speakers we have consulted.

a.	Hij	riep	jarenlang	[dat	hij	nooit	zou	trouwen].
	he	called	for.years	that	he	never	would	marry
	'He called for years that he would never marry.'

a'.		Hij	riep	jarenlang [PRO	nooit	te zullen	trouwen].
		he	called	for.years	never	to will	marry

b.	Ze	schreeuwden	[dat	ze	hem	zouden	vermoorden].
	they	yelled	that	they	him	would	kill
	'They yelled that they would kill him.'

b'.	%	Ze	schreeuwden [PRO	hem	te	zullen	vermoorden].
		they	yelled	him	to	will	kill

c.	Het jongetje	huilde	[dat	hij	gevallen	was].
	the boy	cried	that	he	fallen	was
	'The boy cried that heʼd fallen.'

c'.	%	Het jongetje	huilde [PRO	gevallen	te zijn].
		the boy	cried	fallen	to be

At first sight, the (a)-examples in (20) seem to contradict the claim that there are few verbs that can be combined with a finite declarative clause only, but the (b)-examples show that we should be careful not to jump to conclusions.

a.		Jan merkte/ontdekte	[dat	hij	loog].
		Jan noticed/discovered	that	he	lied

a'.	$	Jan merkte/ontdekte [PRO	te liegen].
		Jan noticed/discovered	to lie

b.	Jan merkte/ontdekte	[dat	hij	honger had].
	Jan noticed/discovered	that	he	hunger had
	'Jan noticed/discovered that he was hungry.'

b'.	Jan merkte/ontdekte [PRO	honger te hebben].
	Jan noticed/discovered	hunger to have
	'Jan noticed/discovered that he was hungry.'

The contrast between the two primed examples seems to be related to the preferred interpretation of the implied subject PRO of the infinitival clause. First, consider the primeless examples with a finite clause: the most prominent reading of (20a) is that Jan noticed or discovered something about someone else, that is, the subject pronoun hij'he' of the embedded clause is preferably interpreted as referring to some individual not mentioned in the sentence; example (20b), on the other hand, is also compatible with a reading in which Jan noticed or discovered something about himself, that is, in which the subject pronoun hij takes the subject of the matrix clause as its antecedent. The contrast between the primed examples can now be accounted for by referring to the fact that the implied subject PRO of the infinitival clause differs from the subject pronoun hij in that it must be interpreted as coreferential with the subject of the matrix clause; this makes the interpretation of (20a') as unusual as that of (20a) if the pronoun hij is taken to be coreferential with the subject of the matrix clause. See Section 4.3 for a brief introduction to the restrictions on the interpretation of the PRO-subject of infinitival argument clauses.
It seems that, besides restrictions imposed by the interpretation of PRO, there are various other factors that may affect the acceptability of infinitival argument clauses. The examples in (21), for instance, suggest that the verb voorkomen'to prevent' can only select finite clauses; the pronoun hij in the (a)-examples can without difficulty be interpreted as coreferential with the subject of the main clause but nevertheless the primed examples are severely degraded.

a.	Jan	voorkwam	net op tijd	[dat	hij	zijn bril	vermorzelde].
	Jan	prevented	just in time	that	he	his glasses	crushed
	'Jan prevented just in time that he crushed his glasses.'

a'.	*?	Jan	voorkwam	net op tijd [PRO	zijn bril	te vermorzelen].
		Jan	prevented	just in time	his glasses	to crush

b.	Jan	voorkwam	net op tijd	[dat	hij	viel].
	Jan	prevented	just in time	that	he	fell
	'Jan prevented just in time that he fell.'

b'.	*?	Jan	voorkwam	net op tijd [PRO	te vallen].
		Jan	prevented	just in time	to fall

The examples in (22) show, however, that the primed examples improve a great deal when we add an adverbial phrase indicating causation or manner.

a.	(?)	Jan voorkwam	hierdoor	net op tijd [PRO	zijn bril	te vermorzelen].
		Jan prevented	by.this	just in time	his glasses	to crush

b.	(?)	Jan	voorkwam	zo	net op tijd [PRO	te vallen].
		Jan	prevented	thus	just in time	to fall

The primed examples in (23), which are adaptations of actually occurring sentences on the internet, further show that examples like these become even better if the embedded clause is a passive or copular construction. Observe that the relevant issue is not that subjects of passive and copular constructions are internal arguments because the same thing holds for the subjects of unaccusative verb like vallen'to fall' in the (b)-examples above.

a.	Hierdoor	voorkwam	hij	[dat	hij	gedeporteerd	werd	naar Duitsland].
	by.this	prevented	he	that	he	deported	was	to Germany
	'In this way he prevented that he was deported to Germany.'

a'.		Hierdoor	voorkwam	hij [PRO	gedeporteerd	te worden	naar Duitsland].
		by.this	prevented	he	deported	to be	to Germany

b.	Zo	voorkwam	ik	[dat	ik	zeeziek	werd].
	thus	prevented	I	that	I	seasick	became
	'In this way I prevented that I became seasick.'

b'.		Zo	voorkwam	ik [PRO	zeeziek	te worden].
		thus	prevented	I	seasick	to become

Although there are more potential counterexamples to the claim that there are only few verbs that can be combined with a finite but not with an infinitival declarative clause, we will conclude by pointing out the contrast between the two examples in (24). The reason why (24a) does not have an infinitival counterpart might simply be that we are dealing with an idiomatic expression (which is also listed as such in dictionaries); the options for substituting the finite clause in (24a) are very limited.

a.	Ik	maakte	[dat	ik	wegkwam].
	I	made	that	I	away-came
	'I got out as quickly as I could.'

b.	*	Ik maakte [PRO	weg	te komen].
		I made	away	to come

The examples in (25) suggest that there are also few verbs that can be combined with a finite but not with an infinitival prepositional object clause: the (a)-examples show that verbs such as verwachten'to expect' that normally take finite PO-clauses also allow infinitival complements; verbs such as vragen'to request' that normally take infinitival PO-clauses give rise to a degraded result with finite complements.

a.	Jan verwacht	[dat	hij	wordt	uitgenodigd].
	Jan expects	that	he	is	prt-invited
	'Jan expects that heʼll be invited.'

a'.	Jan verwacht	uitgenodigd	te worden.
	Jan expects	prt.-invited	to be
	'Jan expects to be invited.'

b.	Jan vraagt	Marie [PRO	te vertrekken].
	Jan asks	Marie	to leave
	'Jan asks Marie to leave.'

b'.	??	Jan	vraagt	Marie	[dat	zij	vertrekt].
		Jan	asks	Marie	that	she	leaves

To our knowledge the factors affecting the acceptability of infinitival argument clauses have not been studied in detail but we provisionally conclude on the basis of the discussion above that verbs selecting a finite declarative argument clause may also take an infinitival clause in the normal course of things, but not necessarily vice versa. Future research must show whether this conclusion is tenable.

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About this article

Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver

Category: Dutch Syntax

Keywords: ControlFinite Argument ClauseInfinite Argument Clause

Version: 1.0, January 2016

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver	January 2016

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