Raising (linguistics)

In linguistics, raising constructions involve the movement of an argument from an embedded or subordinate clause to a matrix or main clause. In other words, a raising predicate/verb appears with a syntactic argument that is not its semantic argument but rather the semantic argument of an embedded predicate. For example, in they seem to be trying, the predicand of trying is the subject of seem. English has raising constructions, unlike some other languages. The term raising has its origins in the transformational analysis of such constructions; the constituent in question is seen as being "raised" from its initial deep structure position, as the subject of the embedded predicate, to its surface structure position in the matrix predicate/verb. Raising predicates/verbs are related to control predicates, although there are important differences between the two predicate/verb types. There are at least two types of raising predicates/verbs: raising-to-subject verbs and raising-to-object predicates. Raising-to-object predicates overlap to a large extent with so-called ECM-verbs (= exceptional case-marking). These types of raising predicates/verbs are illustrated with the following sentences: a. They seem to be trying. - seem is a raising-to-subject verb. b. Prices appear to be increasing. - appear is a raising-to-subject verb. c. You seem to be impatient. - seem is a raising-to-subject verb a. Fred wants us to help. - want can be a raising-to-object predicate. b. That proves him to be hiding something. - prove can be a raising-to-object predicate. c. She predicts there to be a problem. - predict can be a raising-to-object predicate. The primary trait of raising predicates/verbs like these is that they are not semantically selecting one of their dependents. The raising-to-subject verbs are not selecting their subject dependent, and the raising-to-object predicates are not selecting their object dependent. These dependents appear to have been raised from the lower predicate.