The Role of the Predicate of the Main Clause on Finiteness and the Degree of Abstraction of the Subject in Complement Clauses of the Persian Language, Based on Landau's Minimalist View and Givon's Functionalist Approach

This article examines control constructions and the relationship between the control intensity of the main clause and the finiteness of complement clauses in Persian. Landa considers high control within finite and nonfinite complement as the result of action occurrence in complement clause. The Semantic interpretation of the predicate of the main clause determines the aspect and finiteness of the following clause; and this is realized through finiteness and tense. Givon says control constructions are the result of combining the meaning with syntax. The purpose of this study is to examine finiteness and tense in control constructions and to find its effect on PRO representation and nonfiniteness in the complement clause. Data, which includes 300 sentences, have been collected in a library manner using different kinds of control verbs and complement clauses taken from previous works and analyzed by a descriptive-analytical method. By combining formalism and functionalism approaches, the results show the gradedness of finiteness and PRO. As the control intensity decreases in the complement clause, the mood and finiteness of complementary clause changes from nonfinite subjunctive with PRO subject to finite indicative with overt subject.
Introduction
The finiteness of complement clauses has always been a controversial topic among linguists, and many researchers have conducted studies on this subject.  Regarding the issue of finiteness of complement clauses in the Persian language, a group of Iranian linguists have conducted studies on the rejection of nonfinite complement clauses in Persian and have claimed the absence of nonfinite clauses in this language. Also, there have been studies supporting the existence of nonfinite complement clauses in Persian. Some linguists in their research on complement clauses implicitly have proved the nonfinite or infinitive clauses in Persian and believe that the nonfinite clauses exist in the Persian language. Most of these studies are based on the early forms of generative grammar and, finiteness as a graded phenomenon, has received less attention, especially from minimalist or functionalist perspectives. Hence, the present research is important for two reasons. First, previous studies are based on earlier frameworks of generative grammar. Second, previous research has not explored the concepts of finiteness and tense as a graded property. Regarding the aforementioned shortcomings, this study addresses these two concepts as distinct elements involved in representing control structures in Persian.
The main problem in this article is to investigate the role of the predicate of the main clause in the finiteness and the degree of abstraction of the subject of the complement clauses in the Persian language in the framework of Landau's (2006) minimalism and Givon's (1980) functionalism. Using the concepts of “finiteness” and “tense” and considering the control intensity of the verb in the main clause, the authors intend to study the degree of finiteness in complement clauses besed on Landau's Agree Theory of Control and Givon's control continuum. This article focuses on the relationship between the control intensity of main clause and the finiteness of complement clauses in Persian. Landau (2006) believes that the high control within the finite and nonfinite complement clauses is as the result of action occurrence. The semantic interpretation of the predicate of the main clause determines the finiteness of the following clause; and this is realized through two distinct grammatical categories “finiteness” and “tense”. On the other hand, Givon (1980)  argues that control constructions should be studied as a syntacto-semantic concept and should be viewed as a graded phenomenon.
According to Givon's continuum of control verbs, the formation of control constructions results from the integration of  meaning and syntax. Thus, with the effect of semantic interpretation and the control intensity of  the  verbs of the main clause on the realization of the event in the complement clause, the presence of the abstract pronoun (PRO/pro) in the subject position of the subordinate clause is analyzed. The purpose of this study is to examine the categories of “finiteness” and “tense” in control constructions and to determine their effect on subject representation in complement clauses.
The hypothesis of this article is as follows: the complement clauses in Persian may have different degrees of finiteness depending on the degree of control exerted by the verb in the main clause. In other words, main-clause verbs with a higher degree of control take non-finite complement clauses, while those with a lower degree of control take finite complement clauses. What differentiates this research from previous studies is that the authors want to find the finiteness status of the subordinate clause is not a binary condition (finite/nonfinite); rather, there may be be intermediate forms between these two states. Regarding previous research on control constructions from the perspective of modern linguistics, most studies have focused on meaning-based approaches in Persian. In contrast, the authors seek to demonstrate the effectiveness of minimalist and functionalist approaches from a new perspective to provide a comprehensive description and analysis of this challenging phenomenon in Persian.
Data and Methodology
The data for this study consists of 300 sentences collected through a library-based method, using different types of control verbs. The complement clauses were sourced from previous works and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical method. The aforementioned approaches were applied in analyzing the data.
Results and Discussion
The results show the gradedness of finiteness and tense and the different realization of the subject in complement clause. In the strong control constructions of Persian, the subject of the nonfinite complement clause is necessarily an abstract pronoun (PRO), whose reference is found in the main clause. However, as the control intensity of the verb in the main clause decreases, the probability of the presence of pro, an overt pronoun, or an explicit noun phrase increases.
Conclusion
In non-control constructions, an abstract pronoun does not appear in the subject position of the complement clause. In other words, as the control intensity decreases in the complement clause, the mood and finiteness of the complement clause change from a nonfinite subjunctive mood with a PRO subject to a finite indicative mood with an overt subject.
Ethical Considerations
Not applicable
Funding
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Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.