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

(21) A- Estàs cansat?
Are you tired?
B- No
No
A- Doncs ho sembla
Anyway It-ACC seems
'You look as if you were anyway'
the last remark of speaker A clearly means 'mere appearance' situation. Alternatively, semblar-2
(= semblar with Accusative clitic) cannot be used to make a confirming reply: 58
(22) A- Estàs cansat?
Are you tired?
B- Sí.
Yes
A- #Ja ho sembla
Indeed It-ACC seems
'#You indeed look as if you were'
Another fact that makes the distinction between the two verbs plausible is the fact that
they correspond to different verbs in other languages (seem and look/sound/etc. in English). The
English verb look has the properties we postulate for semblar-2: it has the '(mere) appearance'
interpretation, it is not a raising verb (*John looks to have come) and it also requires the
postulation of a quasi-Argument in order to explain its apparent lack of I-subject in cases like:
58 Gemma Rigau pointed out to me the relevance of these
examples.
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