occurs with it-extraposition. c. Sam believed that someone knew the answer. - Raising-to-object predicate believe occurs with clausal object argument. a. That proves Susan to be a jackass. b. That proves it that Susan is a jackass. - Raising-to-object predicate prove occurs with it-extraposition. c. That proves that Susan is a jackass. - Raising-to-object predicate prove occurs with clausal object argument. Raising predicates/verbs can appear with it-extraposition and/or a full clausal dependent. They appear to be subcategorizing for a propositional argument. 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 not to have done it. - Position of the negation is flexible. c. Fred seems to not have done it. - Infinitival splitting occurs. a. Mary does not appear to like pudding. b. Mary appears not to like pudding. - Position of the negation is flexible. c. Mary appears to not like pudding. - Infinitival splitting occurs. 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? - Auxiliary verb be takes part in subject-auxiliary inversion. c. Fred is not happy. - Auxiliary verb be licenses negation. a. Fred seems happy. b. *Seems Fred happy? - Raising-to-subject verb seem cannot take part in subject-auxiliary inversion. c. ??Fred seems not happy. - Raising-to-subject verb seem can hardly license negation. a. Susan should stay. b. Should Susan stay? - Modal auxiliary should takes part in subject-auxiliary inversion. c. Susan should not stay. - Modal auxiliary