Overview

In this chapter, we take a close look at the syntax of subjects. So far, we have assumed that subjects occupy the specifier position within TP and remain in situ (except where the subject is an interrogative operator which undergoes operator movement, e.g. in sentences like Who did he say was coming?). However, in this chapter we argue that subjects originate internally within VP, and subsequently move to spec-TP for checking purposes (an assumption known as the VP-internal subject hypothesis). We look at the syntax of so-called raising predicates like seem, and examine how (and why) they differ from control predicates like try. In addition, we look at the syntax of subjects in passive sentences. Finally, we look at the nature of the A movement operation by which subjects are raised up (in a successive cyclic fashion) into the spec-TP position which they occupy in the superficial syntactic structure of the sentence.

VP-internal subject hypothesis

We begin by looking at the structure of expletive sentences such as (1) below:

1. (a) There is nobody living there

2. (b) There is someone knocking at the door

3. (c) There are several patients waiting to see the doctor

Sentence (1a) contains two different occurrences of there. The second (bold-printed) there is a locative pronoun paraphraseable as ‘in that place’, and contains the diphthong /eə/; the first (italicized) there is an expletive (i.e. dummy or pleonastic) constituent which contains the unstressed vowel /ə/ and does not have a locative interpretation (i.e. it is not paraphraseable as ‘in that place’), but rather has no intrinsic reference (as we see from the fact that its reference can't be questioned – hence the ungrammaticality of *Where is nobody living there?).