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

(23) It looks as if ...
In 0 it is unlikely that the I-subject is the as if clause, because it does not look like a bare
CP. So the conclusion would be that verbs of the semblar-2 type involve a quasi-Argument
roughly denoting 'appearances'.
Since semblar-2 is not a raising verb, we could expect it to be a control verb when it
subcategorizes infinitive. This is the case for Catalan and other Romance languages, where
semblar-2 can have a dative controller:
(24) a. Emi sembla PROi estar somiant (Catalan)
Me-seems to-be dreaming
'I have the impression of being dreaming'
b. Mei parece PROi estar soñando (Spanish)
Me-seems to-be dreaming
c. Mii sembra di PROi éssere in un sogno (Italian)
Me-seems of to-be in a dream
The verb in 0 is clearly semblar-2 as far as it conveys the 'mere appearance' meaning. 59
If we are right in postulating a quasi-Argument, we should say something about its
semantic plausibility. Quasi-Arguments can be conceived as Arguments referring to an entity
which is vague enough not to be possibly instantiated as a full DP: there is something that 'rains'
or 'is late' (roughly the weather, the time, resp.) and cannot (or simply is not) conceptualized
precisely. In the case of semblar-2, what would constitute the quasi-Argument is, likely, '(a set
of) appearances'. In this case, we cannot say it is not conceptualizable: one can precisely know
which fact or thing constitutes the appearance. Nevertheless, semblar-2 does not allow a full DP
59 I cannot explain why the English equivalent of semblar-2
('to look/sound/etc.') cannot involve control:
*It looks to me to be dreaming
1