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

(32) a. *Em sembla que plogui
Me seems that rains-SUBJ
'*It looks to me as if it's raining'
b. Em sembla que plou
Me seems that rains-IND
'It seems to me that it's raining'
There is a problem left to be addressed concerning semblar-1. We have claimed that
semblar-1 has no quasi-Argument and that the CP itself is the I-subject. CP I-subjects in NSLs
can be dropped as null subjects or can be dislocated with a null resumptive pronoun:
(33) Em molesta (, que diguis això)
Me-bothers (, that you-say that)
'It bothers me, that you say that!'
This is not the case with semblar-1:
(34) *Sembla (, que plou)
Seems (, that it rains)
The same happens with another verb (resultar 'to turn out to be the case') which is likely
of the same nature as semblar-1 (it is also a raising verb, subcategorizes indicative and admits
neither ho-cliticization of the CP nor Experiencer datives in Catalan or Spanish):
1