Chapter 8 - The Syntax of Non-Finite Clauses(57) IP
DP I'
e I vP
may v'
it
v VP
seem 1 - ∆ CP V'
that the mouse was electrocuted V
t 1
In the case that the clause is non-finite, although the object will not move out of its
Case position, the subject will of course need to get its Case by moving to the higher
subject position, as we saw in the examples above.
The properties of a verb that allow it to be involved in raising structures are quite
specific. First it must lack a light verb which is responsible for assigning a -role to
the subject and a Case within the VP. Without this light verb the subject position will
be vacant and hence available to be moved into. If a verb has such a light verb, it will
not be able to take part in raising structures for the simple reason that the subject
position will be filled already and moreover, if the lower subject cannot get Case from
within its own clause, it will be able to get it from the light verb. Second, it must take a
clausal complement. Without the clausal complement, the subject of this clause will
not be able to ‘raise’. Moreover, the complement clause must be capable of being non-
finite, given that raising only happens from non-finite clause subject position, for
reasons we have just discussed. A verb which has no subject of its own, but cannot
select for a non-finite clause will always have a pleonastic subject and will never be
involved in raising. A possible verb that fits this pattern is emerge:
(58) a it emerged [that the mouse was shocked]
b *the mouse 1 emerged [t 1 to be in shock]
Another structure which bears a remarkable similarity to raising structures
concerns the passive exceptional verb. From what we know about the properties of
exceptional verbs and the process of passivisation, it can be predicted that they will
behave very much like raising verbs. As we know, an exceptional verb can take a non-
finite IP complement. Normally there will be an accompanying light verb and this will
assign Case to the DP subject of the complement clause. When we passivise a verb, we
replace the light verb with the passive morpheme, which neither assigns a -role to the
subject, nor a Case to the complement. This, then, is the same set of properties that
raising verbs have. We can see that such verbs do indeed behave like raising verbs: