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

(or CP) as an alternative to the (purported) quasi-Argument:
(25) *Aquest soroll sembla que plogui
This noise seems that it-rains-SUBJ
So the reason the quasi-Argument is the only option for semblar-2 has to be another one.
My suggestion is the following. Consider semblar when used without a clausal complement, as
in 0:
(26) En Joan sembla cansat
The J. seems tired
'Joan looks tired'
As is made clear from the translation (where we use to look), here we are dealing with
semblar-2. A plausible analysis of 0 is that the subject (en Joan) is, at D-structure, the subject of
a Small Clause headed by cansat. Suppose we assume that semblar-2 always has a Small Clause
complement. Then, in:
(27) Sembla que plogui
Seems that rains-SUBJ
'It looks as if it was raining'
the quasi-Argument would be the Subject of a Small Clause whose nucleus would be the CP (que
plogui):
(28) Sembla [ SC quasi-A [ CP que plogui ]]
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