Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

(17) a. Sembla que està cansat
Seems that he's tired
'It seems that he's tired'
b. Sembla que estigui cansat
Seems that he-be tired
'It looks as if he's tired'/'He looks tired'
From the syntactic point of view, in the a. example semblar subcategorizes for a CP in
indicative mood, while in the b. example it subcategorizes for a subjunctive CP. From the
interpretative point of view, the a. example means something like 'there are convincing
indications that he's tired', while the b. example means 'there are (mere) appearances that he's
tired'. Let's call semblar-1 the verb in a. and semblar-2 the verb in b. Now let us consider
semblar as a raising verb: 57
(18) (Ell) sembla estar cansat
(He) seems to-be tired
It is clear that 0 is synonymous with 0.a) and not with 0.b): this seems to indicate that it is
semblar-1, not semblar-2, that is a raising verb. As a raising verb, semblar-1 cannot have any
quasi-Argument, for the reasons we argued above. On the other hand, since semblar-2 is not a
raising verb, no theoretic problem arises if we postulate that it projects a quasi-Argument.
Suppose that it does, and that this is what makes it possible for the CP not to become subject. If
we are on the right track, the prediction is that the verb semblar which allows its CP to
57 Infinitival raising constructions are not accepted in
Normative Catalan and, indeed, they are not a genuine
construction in spoken Catalan. However, I do not find them more
awkward than many other constructions that have entered standard
Catalan without originally belonging to the spoken language
(passives, Wh-relatives, etc.).
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