(Pseudo-)Inflected infinitives and Control as Agree

This paper discusses the distribution of inflected infinitives in standard and non-standard European Portuguese. In the standard variety, inflected infinitives are generally available in non-obligatory control contexts, but can only occur in obligatory control contexts when the temporal orientation of the complement is not specified by the matrix verb. An explanation for this fact is offered along the lines of an Agree theory of control. This analysis also accounts for the possibility of controlled inflected infinitives, which bear morphological inflection but which cannot license nominative, occurring in non-standard varieties of European Portuguese: they are considered the result of the spell out of the Agree operation that takes place in control contexts.