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

(38) Semblar-1 Semblar-2
'convincing evidence' 'mere appearance'
indicative subjunctive (or indicative)
no quasi-Arg. quasi-Arg.
CP complement (possibly CP-headed) SC complement
adjunct predicate main predicate
raising (possible) no raising
no control control (possible)
epistemic reading no epistemic reading
= seem (or seem-1) = look/sound/etc. (or seem-2)
similar verbs: resultar,
diu que.
In conclusion, it seems to me that so narrow a range of potential problematic examples as
semblar and similar verbs should not lead us to abandon our crucial claim that any clause has an
I-subject (which allows us to derive Burzio's Generalization), and that a reasonably plausible and
motivated way-out of the problem can be conceived of.
Italian sembrare does not easily fit into the preceding picture. On the one hand, the
indicative/subjunctive contrast is not present. In standard Italian subjunctive is preceptive in any
case. In colloquial Italian, indicative is possible, but not in any interpretative contrast with
subjunctive, because subjunctive is simply disappearing from colloquial/dialectal Italian in many
regions. 66
On the other hand, the finite CP Argument of sembrare can be dropped or dislocated, in
66 In those dialects, it is disappearing even in the
complement CP of optative verbs:
Voglio che vieni
I-want that you-come-IND
1