Raising to object

Definition
NP-movement from an embedded subject position to a c-commanding object position. This operation has been proposed in order to explain the fact that him in (i), although the subject of to have won, has the case-marking of a direct object.

(i) John believes himi[tito have won]

The problem with this analysis is that an empty object position will have to be generated in order to provide a landing site for NP-movement. This is at odds with the Projection Principle and in conflict with Theta-theory. As a solution to this problem it has been proposed (e.g. in Chomsky 1991) that Raising-to-object is in fact movement to the specifier position in a functional AGRP. See Exceptional Case Marking. Soames &amp; Perlmutter suggest that 'Raising to object' is merely a metaphor, and that in fact, the embedded clause in (iii) contains a pro-drop ( pro) subject.

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics