On The Complement Selection Of Seem

In the framework of Universal Grammar, guided by the Theta Theory、Case Theory and Extended Projection Principle, this thesis attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of the complement selection of seem on the previous research.By treating AP complements, NP complements, and PP complements as "small complement", whereas IP complements and CP complements as "big complement", I interpret seem as two different entries:namely epistemic seem and perceptional seem according to Matushansky’s assumption. This thesis discusses the complement selection of seem from semantic and syntactic perspectives.Semantically, it is a complete proposition that the complement of seem expresses. When the complement is a "small clause", the predicate can be AP、NP or PP. In this condition, seem is interpreted as a perceptional one. Just like other perceptional verbs, perceptional seem demands scalar complement. Therefore, the "small complement" of seem possesses a feature of scalarity generally. The head of predicate shows a comparative meaning itself. Most heads of AP complements display scalarity and thus have a scalar meaning. We consider NP as a "predicative degree noun", which means that it can also have the feature of scalarity. A PP complement has such scalar property in general. However, in English, most nouns are non-scalar ones. If the predicate is not scalar, we can adopt a "repair measure"—scalarity coercion. That is to say, to insert a degree operator or a modifier before the predicate can save this situation, such as quite a, utter, so, too, very etc. By doing this, the scalarity coercion of the predicate is attained.Syntactically, seem can be regarded as a "quasi-copula". In this thesis, I compare the finite clause complement structure of seem with the finite clause complement structure of be. It is concluded that "clausal subject" can not act as a sentence subject in seem structures. In addition, an analysis is made on the syntactic distribution of expletive it by drawing an analogy between seem structures and passive structures. The expletive it moved from the object position to the subject position for the purpose to check its "case feature" in passive structures. At the same time, the movement satisfies the EPP condition. In the raising structure, it is regarded as the predicate of a small clause. It is proposed that the small clause is not a direct complement of seem, but rather only a part of the complement. When the complement of seem is an infinite clause, the subject of IP moved to the subject position of sentence to obtain Case.The analysis of the "scalar properties" of complement of the epistemic seem shows that it is not enough to explain the scalarity semantically. Epistemic verbs, including epistemic seem, have the property named "degree uninterpreted". In order to obtain interpretation of it, the degree predicate has gone through a raising movement.As this thesis mainly aims to analyze the syntactic and semantic properties of the complement selection of seem, deductive reasoning based on logical principles will be adopted on many occasions as the primary methodology. In addition, the analogy is also taken to analyze raising construction with passive construction. The ultimate goal of the present study is to provide a profound description and explanation of the syntactic and semantic properties of complement selection of seem.