Chapter 8 - The Syntax of Non-Finite Clauses2.1 Raising
As we have seen, with certain verbs a subject which is generated in one clause can
move into the subject position of a higher clause. This movement is known as raising
as the subject always moves from a lower clause to a higher one and never the other
way round. The conditions on raising are that the moved element must originate in a
non-finite clause and it must be the subject of that clause. Thus, we do not find raising
out of finite clauses or raising directly out of object positions:
(52) a The electrician 1 seems [t 1 to have found a mouse]
b The electrician 1 seems [t 1 has found a mouse]
c A mouse 1 seems [the electrician to have found t 1 ]
In a number of ways this is similar to the kinds of movements we have seen
previously which take a DP from one position and move it to a subject position, such
as the movement of the subject from the specifier of a VP or the movement of an
object of a passive or unaccusative verb. Those kinds of movements, we saw, were
motivated by the fact that the DP started off in a Caseless position and hence in order
to satisfy the Case filter it had to move into a Case position. The subject of a finite
clause is a Case position as this is where nominative Case is assigned to by the finite
inflection. In (52a) we see a DP that is moved into the subject of a finite clause, and so
it may be that this movement is also Case motivated. If this is so, we expect to find
that the position it moves from is a Caseless position. Is this prediction accurate?
Consider the relevant structure in a little more detail.
A first issue to decide on is whether the embedded clause has the status of a CP or
an IP. We saw in the previous section that some verbs select for IP non-finite
complement clauses while others do not. The question we need to answer, then, is
whether verbs like seem are exceptional verbs or not. There is reason to believe that
these verbs are exceptional, as they never take a non-finite complement with a for
complementiser:
(53) a it seems [for the electrician to have found a mouse]
b it appears [for the mouse to be dead]
A possible explanation for this fact could be that the clause is an IP and hence there is
no position for the complementiser. Let us assume this to be correct.
At D-structure the complement clause will sit in the specifier of the verb:
(54) VP
IP V'
the electrician to have found a mouse V
seem
The verb will move from its original position to support some inflection, depending on
what is present. If there are aspectual morphemes, the lowest will be supported by the
verb, if not the verb will move to either the (null) tense, if there is a modal, or all the
way to the I position if there is a bound agreement morpheme as well: