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    4.1 Raising auxiliaries selecting to-infinitives
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    Raising auxiliaries are auxiliaries which do not seem to have arguments of their own. That is, the only argument of a raising auxiliary is the to-infinitive which it selects. Thus raising auxiliaries qualify the meaning of the main verb which is the head of their complement. The structural subject position of a tensed raising auxiliary is empty, open for the subject argument of the to-infinitive. Hence any subject argument of a to-infinitive is realised in the subject position of a raising auxiliary.

    1
    Jo skenen dät nit tou ferstounden.
    they seemed it not to understand
    They didn’t seem to understand it.
    2
    Deer hougest du nit foar tou suurgjen.
    R.it need you not for to take.care
    You don’t need to take care of that.

    The arguments present in the clause are exactly the arguments selected by the to-infinitive. So the raising auxiliary does not not add any arguments of its own to the clause union. The raising auxiliary forms, as it were, one complex verb with the main verb, so that clause union is obligatory. Put differently and descriptively, the combination of raising auxiliary and main verb inherits the argument frame of the main verb.

    Modal verbs and evidential verbs can characteristically be used as raising verbs. There is only one modal verb which can select a to-infinitive: hougje ‘need’. The sections below discuss this in more detail.

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    [+]1. The modal verb hougje ‘to need’ and raising

    The modal verb hougje ‘to need’ is the only modal which may select a to-infinitive instead of a bare infinitive. Some examples are given below:

    3
    Du hougest deer nit waitougungen.
    you need there not to.to.go
    You don’t need to go there.
    4
    Jo hougeden neen Huus tou bauen.
    they needed no house to build
    They didn’t need to build a house.

    In these examples, the selecting verb is finite, and it occupies a position at the beginning of the clause. If the selecting verb is not finite, it doesn’t select a to-infinitive but a bare infinitive. Some examples are given below:

    5
    Jo häbe neen Huus baue houged.
    they have no house build needed
    They haven’t needed to build a house.
    6
    Dät hied nit weze houged.
    that had not be needed
    It didn’t have to be.

    These examples also illustrate the lack of the IPP-effect, and they show that the main verb precedes the perfect participle of the modal auxiliary in the verb cluster. The examples also show that the modal verb doesn’t select any arguments itself, beyond selecting the to-infinitival clause. The clause union of a modal with a to-infinitive exhibits the arguments and restrictions on arguments of the main verb. The last example also shows that the modal and the main verb may form an idiom. This implies that the modal verb directly selects the main verb as a constituent. Correspondingly, the main verb can be preposed as an independent constituent, as in the following example:

    7
    Skoomje hougje wie uus nit.
    shame need we us not
    Ashamed, we need not be of ourselves.

    In embedded clauses as in main clauses, the tensed modal selects a to-infinitive:

    8
    Dät hie neen Hondwierk moor tou leren hougede.
    that he no handicraft more to learn needed
    That he didn’t need to learn a skill anymore.
    9
    Do nit umetoukieren hougje.
    that not around.to.turn need
    ‘Who don’t need to turn around.

    It seems that the bare infinitive tends to appear in the company of forms of hougje ‘need’ which are not finite. The to-infinitive appears in the company of finite forms, both in main clauses and in embedded clauses. The choice of bare infinitive or to-infinitive doesn’t have any effect on the word order in the verbal cluster at the end of the middle field: it is consistently head-final. The modal verb obligatorily forms one clause with the to-infinitival verb which it selects. Instead of hougje ‘need’, the German interference bruke ‘need’ can also be heard, as in the following example:

    10
    Wäl in ’t Woater faalt, brukt foar dän Rien nit boange weze.
    who in the water falls needs for the rain not afraid be
    Who falls in the water, need not be afraid of the rain.

    Note that the modal, though finite, doesn’t combine here with a to-infinitive but with an ordinary infinitive.

    [+]2. Evidential verbs and raising

    The evidential verb skiene is a raising verbs, which selects a to-infinitive. Two examples are given below:

    11
    Juust do Liede fon dät Lieuw, do swäk tou wezen skiene, kon man nit misse.
    precisely the members of the body which feeble to be seem can one not miss
    Precisely the members of the body which seem to be weak, cannot be done without.
    12
    Jo skenen dät nit tou ferstounden.
    they seemed it not to understand
    They didn’t seem to understand it.

    Here the subject argument of the tensed verb skiene ‘seem’ is the NP, which receives its thematic role from the AP swäk ‘feeble’ in the first example and from the to-infinitive (the thematic role of subject) in the second example. The intermediary auxiliary tou wezen ‘to be’ also functions as a raiding auxiliary. Note that the word order is strictly head final: the tensed evidential verb is found at the end of the verb cluster at the end of the middle field.

    [+]3. Auxiliaries of temporal situation and raising

    Verbs like to begin, to fail and to continue describe the situation of an event in time. These verbs are unambiguously raising verb, if the action is not volitional. An example is given below:

    13
    So’n grote Fracht Fiske, dät hiere Nätte tou rieten begonnen.
    such.a big load fish that her nets to tear began
    Such a big load of fish, that their nets began to tear.

    The to-infinitival verb is usually found to the left of the verb cluster, but recent sources such as Gretchen Grosser also have examples with the to-infinitive placed to the right of the verb cluster:

    14
    Unnerwains waas dät ounfangd tou rienen.
    on.the.way was it begun to rain
    On the way there, it had begun to rain.

    This may be due to interference, since the verb ounfange comes from German (anfangen), and it is ousting native beginne ‘to begin’.

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      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra
      Category: Saterfrisian Syntax
      Version: 1.0, December 2023
      Version history:
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      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra December 2023
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