Raising and Control

In La porta sembla estar tancada and La conserge vol tancar la porta, both finite verbs are followed by infinitives, but the subjects have different grammatical histories. Semblar merely evaluates the embedded proposition: the door is the thing that is closed, not an experiencer of seeming. Voler assigns a role to an intentional wanter, who is also understood as the subject of tancar. The first pattern is raising; the second is control.

English has comparable contrasts, but its compulsory subjects and freer use of “for + noun + to” can hide them. Catalan uses verbal agreement, null understood subjects, prepositions, and weak-pronoun behavior to reveal the distinction. The broader inventory appears on the infinitival-clauses page.

Raising: one participant, two structural positions

With raising predicates such as semblar and resultar, the surface subject receives its meaning from the lower predicate. The higher verb does not select it as an agent, experiencer, or recipient.

The analysis of the first sentence is approximately:

[La propostaᵢ sembla [tᵢ satisfer tots els requisits]]

The notation tᵢ marks the understood lower position associated with la proposta. Semantically, satisfer selects the proposal as its subject. Syntactically, the noun phrase appears in the higher clause and controls singular agreement on sembla. In the plural example, les dues alternatives controls plural resulten and plural adjective costoses.

Raising accepts subjects that cannot intend or promise anything:

The existential example has no referential controller for the higher predicate. That is a strong diagnostic: semblar can evaluate a situation without assigning a semantic subject role. In polished usage, Sembla que hi ha un error... is also completely natural and often preferred.

Resultar que introduces a finite proposition and has a presentational meaning:

This impersonal construction is related in meaning but is not the same syntax as La còpia resulta ser autèntica, where la còpia is raised and resulta agrees with it.

Information structure can reorder the same raising relation. The first sentence below is neutral; the second postpones an accessible topic as an afterthought while plural agreement keeps the dependency visible:

Subject control: the matrix subject supplies the infinitive's subject

Control verbs assign a semantic role in the higher clause. With voler, the matrix subject is the wanter and is normally understood as the agent of the infinitive:

[La tècnicaᵢ vol [PROᵢ repetir la mesura]]

PRO represents the unpronounced subject of the infinitive. Unlike a raised trace, it has a controller: la tècnica. The intentional interpretation helps diagnose control. A crack can seem to widen, but it cannot literally want to widen unless personified.

Prometre also normally has subject control, even when a recipient stands closer to the infinitive:

The recipient a la cap does not control acabar. English speakers sometimes choose the nearest noun phrase mechanically, but lexical meaning decides: the promiser undertakes the action.

Contemporary usage often joins prometre directly to the infinitive, as above. The linker de is also standard and is especially well established in careful formal prose: En Biel va prometre a la cap d'acabar l'informe. Adding de does not change the control relation; Biel remains the understood subject of acabar.

When the intended infinitival actor is different, Catalan normally uses a finite clause:

Compare La cap vol acabar l'informe (“the manager wants to finish it herself”). The que boundary makes both subjects independently available and requires a finite subordinate verb.

Object control: obligar

With obligar, the matrix object is the person compelled and controls the infinitive. The controller is not the matrix subject.

[La direcció va obligar [els proveïdors]ᵢ [PROᵢ a repetir totes les proves]]

The preposition a is selected by obligar. The object controller can be replaced by a weak pronoun:

The plural clitic els is a matrix object and at the same time identifies the understood plural subject of repetir. This double role explains why deleting it is not ordinary subject pro-drop: La direcció va obligar a repetir... either lacks the affected people or receives a different causative-like interpretation in context.

Predicate	Construction	Who is understood in the infinitive?	Key diagnostic
semblar, resultar	raising	surface subject originates with lower predicate	allows inanimate or existential subjects
voler, prometre	subject control	matrix subject	subject is a wanter/promiser
obligar algú a	object control	matrix object	object is compelled and can be cliticized

Agreement distinguishes the layers

Only finite verbs show person and number agreement. A raised noun phrase controls the higher finite verb because it occupies the higher subject position: La dada sembla... / Les dades semblen.... In a control structure, the controller determines matrix agreement according to its own function, while the infinitive remains uninflected: Nosaltres volem sortir; La directora ens obliga a sortir.

Catalan has no general personal infinitive comparable to Portuguese. A noun phrase cannot simply be inserted as an independently inflected infinitival subject. When two explicit subjects are needed, a finite que-clause is often the correct solution.

Weak pronouns as a diagnostic — and a warning

Clitic behavior helps, but it is not a mechanical test. The restructuring verb voler commonly allows an embedded object's clitic to remain on the infinitive or climb:

By contrast, prometre is a less transparent clause boundary. In neutral standard Catalan, keep the embedded object's clitic with its infinitive:

Do not force el va prometre publicar: the preverbal el is easily parsed as an object of prometre, and many speakers reject the intended climbing reading. Raising, control, and restructuring overlap in some verb classes but are not synonyms.

With object control, a matrix clitic identifies the controller while another clitic may belong to the infinitive:

The sentence is grammatical but referentially demanding. Natural communication often replaces one pronoun with a full noun phrase: Van obligar els promotors a retornar els diners als clients.

A natural dialogue and the nearest-noun trap

The dialogue explicitly confirms subject control: Marina, not her brother, brings dessert. The postverbal ella is contrastively focused. An English learner may incorrectly assign the infinitive to the nearest noun al seu germà, but prometre links the promised action to the promiser.

Ambiguity: pronoun reference versus control

In La Marina va prometre a la Joana visitar-la, control itself is clear: Marina is the understood visitor. The clitic la, however, may refer to Joana or to another salient woman. These are different questions. Syntax identifies the null subject of visitar; discourse identifies its object.

If two women are active, repeat the intended name: La Marina va prometre visitar la Joana diumenge. Do not expect proximity or a comma to settle every reference relation.

Regional and register notes

The raising/control contrast and the selected preposition in obligar algú a fer una cosa are shared by the major standards. Central, Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese varieties may differ in clitic forms and in how readily particular predicates permit climbing. Follow the pronoun system of the variety being used; the underlying controller remains the same.

Technical labels such as raising, control, PRO, and trace are (academic). The constructions themselves are everyday Catalan. In (formal) prose, avoid long strings with several possible controllers; repeat a noun or use a finite clause. Literary personification can deliberately let an inanimate subject “want” or “promise,” but that stylistic extension does not invalidate the ordinary animacy diagnostic.

Correction practice

Identify who performs the infinitive, then repair the sentence if necessary:

1. La Núria va prometre al seu soci arribar puntual.
2. El seu soci vol la Núria arribar puntual.
3. La coordinadora va obligar que els becaris repetissin l'enquesta.

In 1, Núria is understood to arrive; no repair is needed. For 2, choose La Núria vol arribar puntual if Núria is the wanter, or El seu soci vol que la Núria arribi puntual if the partner wants her to do it. In 3, repair the sentence because the intended object-control construction must identify the people compelled and select a + infinitive: La coordinadora va obligar els becaris a repetir l'enquesta.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Raising predicates do not assign a semantic role to the surface subject; that participant belongs semantically to the lower predicate.
• Subject-control verbs link the infinitive's understood subject to the matrix subject; object-control obligar links it to the matrix object.
• Inanimate and existential subjects diagnose raising, while intention and lexical roles identify control.
• Agreement, selected prepositions, and clitic placement expose the structure, but clitic climbing is not a perfect synonym for raising or control.