Raising (linguistics) - Raising-to-subject Verbs Vs. Auxiliary Verbs

Raising-to-subject Verbs Vs. Auxiliary Verbs

The raising-to-subject verbs seem and appear are similar to auxiliary verbs insofar as both verb types have little to no semantic content. The content that they do have is functional in nature. In this area, auxiliary verbs cannot be viewed as separate predicates; they are, rather, part of a predicate. The raising-to-subject verbs seem and appear are similar insofar it is difficult to view them as predicates. They serve, rather, to modify a predicate. That this is so can be seen in the fact that the following pairs of sentences are essentially synonymous:

a. Fred does not seem to have done it.

b. Fred seems to have not done it.

a. Mary does not appear to like pudding.

b. Mary appears to not like pudding.

The fact that position of the negation can change without influencing the meaning is telling. It means that the raising-to-subject verbs can hardly be viewed as predicates.

While raising-to-subject verbs are like auxiliary verbs insofar as they lack the content of predicates, they are unlike auxiliaries in syntactic respects. Auxiliary verbs undergo subject-aux inversion, raising-to-subject verbs do not. Auxiliary verbs license negation, raising-to-subject verbs do so only reluctantly:

a. Fred is happy.

b. Is Fred happy?

c. Fred is not happy.

a. Fred seems happy.

b. *Seems Fred happy?

c. ??Fred seems not happy.

a. Susan should stay.

b. Should Susan stay? -

c. Susan should not stay.

a. Susan appears to be staying.

b. *Appears Susan to be staying?

c. ?Susan appears not to be staying.

Raising-to-object verbs are also clearly NOT auxiliary verbs. Unlike raising-to-subject verbs, however, raising-to-object verbs have clear semantic content, so they are hence indisputably predicates.