On the syntax of the can’t seem construction in English

Abstract

/The properties of the English can’t seem construction call for a syntactic resolution of the syntax-semantics mismatch it exhibits. This chapter shows the can’t seem order must be derived from a [seem to [ . . . not can VP ] ] structure. Insights into the derivation come from verb clusters in Germanic OV languages, with complex verb formation and clustering verbs like can and seem playing a central role. Together with infinitival to, dative to, and downward entailing elements, these are instrumental in creating remnant constituents, triggering pied-piping and smuggling a remnant constituent up into the structure, until each element can reach its final landing site. Restrictions fall out from the particular sequence of merge which must hold for convergence, and from the role each element must play. The English derivation in turn sheds light on a potential syntactic resolution of a syntax-phonology mismatch with “displaced” zu in German verbal clusters.