Raising: subject-to-subject
The term raising
is often used to selectively refer to the raising of NPs
to the subject position of a higher clause or to another position
in a higher clause. See raising.
Here, we examine raising out of tenseless clauses (infinitives).
Consider the following pair of sentences.
Note that this pair of sentences is nearly synonymous. (1) consists of two basic eventualities:
X is an incomplete eventuality in that it cannot be falsified. What is falsifiable is the main proposition:
(5) It doesn't seem that John is happy.
Arguments marking eventujalities are not normally assigned a theta-role. This is no real problem as it can be shown in advanced work that each theta role is nothing more than the name of an argument of a specific kind of eventuality. We could not bother or we could call it 'event':
(6) SEEM <event: X>.
It is a moot point whether be is part of the propositional structure. In our view it is not; it is inserted as a dummy verb. Both basic propositions are modified by TENSE--[-Past]:
(7) and (8) are merged into a single string (Chomsky calls this a generalized transformation):
Now note that the
basic propositions of (2) are the same as (1) even though John
is the subject of seems. It is John who is happy.
The difference between (1) and (2) lies in the tense of the embedded
clause. In (1) it is modified by [-Past], but in (2) there is
no formal tense differentiation. This construction is often called
an infinitive clause, the tense form of the verb the infinitive.
It is marked with the form to in English:
(8) and (9) are merged into a single string:
Syntactically, the subject of the embedded clause raises to the subject position of the matrix clause:
[-Tense] is spelled out as the particle to in English. There is some debate to what category this particle is. We adopt Chomsky's position that 'to' marks [-Tense]. To is a free standing form--it requires no host. [+Tense] expands to [±Past]; [-Tense] has no further expansion. Chomsky considers 'to' a non-goverrnor, but we find that it is not necessary to consider it a non-governor. Hence there is no targeted movement. [-Past] targets seem and lowers. John raises first from the verb and adjoins to TP, then it raises again and adjoins to TP in the matrix clause. The rational for raising is discussed in case theory, but see also .theta roles.
Raising
verbs include seem, appear, and several passives formed
with pleonastic pronouns:
Other such passive verbs include understood, thought, said, presumed, assumed, and so forth.
There are raising adjectives:
Some adjectives are raising only in that they do not subcategorize a tensed complement:
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This page last updated 27 JA 2001
