This chapter presents formal analyses of the constructions of interest in this book: raising-to-subject, tough-movement, and unaccusative constructions. In each of these constructions the main clause subject is displaced with respect to its thematic position, and the main predicate is therefore a displacing predicate. Each of these displacing constructions will be contrasted with a surface-similar construction that does not involve displacement, as discussed in Chapter 1. And in each case, the cue of subject animacy can distinguish the two constructions: only the displacing predicates permit inanimate subjects in an unrestricted fashion. We'll also discuss the passive, which works like these other displacing constructions in certain respects, but behaves differently in other respects.

For each displacing construction I will give a descriptive overview of the construction and some empirical diagnostics for it. I will then present what I take to be standard contemporary accounts of the construction's underlying structure and derivation, with some references to older accounts or different frameworks as relevance dictates. All of the constructions under consideration here have provoked lively debates over the past several decades, resulting in numerous analyses in the syntax literature. It is beyond the scope of this book to give a complete history of the analyses of each construction. Rather, my goal here is to highlight some of the classic and contemporary treatments of these structures. The accounts I present will lean heavily towards movement-based frameworks, though in fact the main thesis of this book does not hinge on a movement-based treatment of these constructions.