Assignment 19


We have an analysis of constructions involving verbs like
	want, expect, try, ...
the details of which by now are familiar to you.

Consider now:

(1)  She wants to be happy.
(2)  She seems to be happy.

These two sentences seem to have the same structure.  Yet there must be
some difference between wanting and seeming, because the two verbs cannot
always appear in the same context:

(3)  It wants the beer.
(4) *It seems the beer.

(5) *It wants that she is happy.
(6)  It seems that she is happy.

(7)  It wants her to be happy.
(8) *It seems her to be happy.

(9) *There wants to be a fly in your beer.
10)  There seems to be a fly in your beer.

11) *Close tabs want to be being kept on my whereabouts.
12)  Close tabs seem to be being kept on my whereabouts.

13) *It wants to be obvious that you are lying.
14)  It seems to be obvious that you are lying.

We already have an analysis of sentences with the verb 'want'. 
Our task here will be to find an analysis of sentences with the
verb 'seem' which can account for the differences.

The key to the mystery is example (6), which provides a clue to
what sort of deep structure 'seem' is inserted into.  Answer
these questions:

    (a)  What sort of 'it' do we have in (6)?
    (b)  Does 'seem' seem to be transitive (two participants in DS)
         or intransitive (one participant in DS)?
    (c)  Is 'want' transitive or intransitive?	

Consideration of the following may provide further clues:

   (15)  That she wants to be happy seems to be obvious.
   (16)  It seems to be obvious that she wants to be happy.

   (17) *That she seems to be happy wants to be obvious.
   (18) *It wants to be obvious that she seems to be happy.

Propose, present, and discuss an analysis that accounts for all these facts.
Your analysis should also account for the fact that (19) and (20)
are synonymous, while (21) and (22) are not:

   (19)  Bill seems to like Betty.
   (20)  Betty seems to be liked by Bill.

   (21)  Bill wants to like Betty.
   (22)  Betty wants to be liked by Bill.