Expletive Subject in ‘Seem’ Construction (Feature 63)
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Feature Annotation
Here we ask whether there is an expletive subject in a ‘seem’ construction, as in English It seems (that) we have stayed long enough, It looks like/it appears that it is going to rain. An expletive subject is an element in subject position that has no reference and that seems to function primarily as a placeholder.
A ‘seem’ construction is a construction with a matrix verb denoting a propositional attitude and a complement clause that is its subject. The experiencer of the attitude may be absent, or present in oblique form (It seems to me that...).
Not all languages have ‘seem’ constructions; some only have experiencer-subject propositional attitude verbs ('I think that...'; value 3).
If the expletive subject is optional, please select both value 1 and value 2.
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | Expletive subject is present | English It seems that... |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | No expletive subject | Spanish Parece que... |
| 3 | There is no ‘seem’ construction in the language | |
WALS No.
(None)
