Spurious infinitival ccomps

[nschneid]

https://universal.grew.fr/?custom=644d4002c97cd - some of these are tough-constructions (addressed in other issues). Some are probably legitimate, e.g. "tell somebody how to do something" (interrogative).

But ~the ones with matrix predicate "make" and~ some of the miscellaneous ones look wrong—extraposed subjects, purpose clauses, etc.

[amir-zeldes]

tell somebody how to do something

Note this would be a free relative in GUM so obj+acl not xcomp (you are telling them "the way, how to do something", not "to do it", so the head governed by the verb is "how", corresponding to the way being told about)

[nschneid]

But for "tell somebody [whether to do something]", would you use ccomp or xcomp?

[amir-zeldes]

That's a tricky one... I would have thought xcomp since we have subject sharing?

[nschneid]

That would be my guess too, but it's not a prototypical example of control so I'm not positive.

I can only find one "whether to" example in EWT or GUM, and it's after a preposition thus advcl.

For future reference: CGEL calls these infinitival interrogatives, p. 985.