seems and sentential complement

[Roger Levy]

"Tibor Kiss" <afelpado at compuserve.de> writes:

> Hi,
>
> since I was so successful recently in asking questions about English, I try
> again. Very simple question this time: Is it correct that 'seem' requires
> a that-complement if its complement is finite, i.e. is the following
> distribution correct?
>
> (1) John seems to be certain to leave.
> (2) It seems that John is certain to leave.
> (3) *It seems John is certain to leave.

Hi Tibor,

My intuitions tell me that (3) is indeed more awkward than (1-2).  But
the litmus test is a corpus search.  From the BNC:

  To a fevered imagination, it seems no one can turn a corner in the
  crowded conference complex without running into a mug shot of one or
  other high-theoretician leering pensively from a wall of hardback
  dust covers.

  ...with the mangy dialogue and Belushi's lack of manic spin, it
  seems the mutt has all the best lines.

  Knighton declined to comment ahead of the talks with Edwards, but it
  seems he is keen at all costs to avoid a court case.

>From the Brown corpus:

  Just when it seems baseball might be losing its grip on the masses
  up pops heroics to start millions of tongues to wagging.


All these seem amply natural to me.  I wonder why (3) seems more
awkward than (2) to me.

Roger