‘RAISED’ SUBJECTS
You may have noticed that in clauses such as They are likely to win, the NG at Subject does not appear to be the logical Subject of the Complement likely to win. In fact, the likelihood refers not to the subject they, but to the situation of winning. Syntactically, then, the nominal group (they) is the logical subject of a clause embedded at subject, as in (a) below (that they will win), which is then extraposed, as in (b). Finally the subject of the sub- ordinate clause is raised to become subject of the main clause, as in (c):
(a) That they will win is likely.
(b) It is likely that they will win.
(c) They are likely to win.
This is known as subject-to-subject raising. Likely is used a great deal in this construction, perhaps because its apparent synonym probable does not admit raising (*He is probable to win). Other lexical auxiliaries that are the result of raising are be certain to, sure to and supposed to.
Object-to-subject raising occurs when a NG Object of a clause embedded at subject (them in (a) below) is extraposed as in (b) and then is raised to subject of the main clause, as in (c):
(a) To find them is hard.
(b) It is hard to find them.
(c) They are hard to find.
Raised subjects have the advantage of referring to persons or things by names, nouns or pronouns in a clause that is shorter and simpler than the corresponding that-clause or extraposed structures. They also provide a different Theme and Topic.
