Information AboutRaising Verb |
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Raising verbs are so called because they "raise" one of their arguments out of a more- Embedded Clause . In the example above, ''he'' is raised out of the ''do'' clause, which is embedded as an argument of the ''seemed'' clause. (Note that older grammars would classify "to do that" as a Phrase rather than a clause; this does not affect the classification of raising verbs, however.) RAISING AND CONTROL VERBS
As with many technical terms, both ''raising verb'' and ''control verb'' are used somewhat differently in different papers, partly because different linguistic theories may group verbs in somewhat different hierarchies. OBJECT- AND SUBJECT-RAISING VERBS In English and many other languages, raising verbs may be classified as either ''subject-raising'', meaning that it is their (syntactic) .) Further, it is possible for the raised argument to be an object even in the more-embedded clause; for example, consider "He is easy to please," where ''he'' is syntactically the subject of ''is (easy)'' but semantically the object of ''to please''. To allow for such verbs, a more general terminology is used, one that specifies both the syntactic argument type (relative to the raising verb) and the semantic argument type (relative to the verb argument). In this terminology, ''seem'' is subject-subject-raising, ''expect'' is object-subject-raising (at least in sentences like "She expected him to do that"), and ''is (easy)'' is subject-object-raising. Object-object-raising verbs also exist, as in a sentence like "I consider him easy to please," where ''him'' is syntactically the object of ''consider (easy)'', but semantically the object of ''to please'', and the sentence could be rewritten as, "I consider it easy to please him." |
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