(Backward) Control and Clitic Climbing: On the Deficiency of Non-finite Domains in Spanish and Catalan

This paper investigates the interaction between two phenomena related to the transparency status of nonfinite complements in Spanish and Catalan: Clitic Climbing, which has been taken as a test for restructuring, and Backward Control, which has been interpreted as empirical evidence for the application of subject raising in control configurations. I will show (i) that the partial overlap between the two phenomena indicates that Backward Control is only apparent, being the side effect of verbal complex formation (Ordóñez 2009) and (ii) that there are basically three types of control infinitives with respect to transparency phenomena.