John made it so that ...

[George Aaron Broadwell]

Dear colleagues,

In my syntax class on Monday, a student asked me about the analysis of a
sentence like the following:

John made it so that I could attend.

The structure of the complements of *make* in this case seems difficult to
me.  We know that *make *typically takes an NP OBJ and a variety of
predicative XPs (NP, AdjP, VP):

John made Bill [his best friend]
Lee made Sue [very happy]
Kim made Pat [wash the dishes]


These examples suggest that [so that I could attend] is some sort of
predicative XP.  But of what category? And why is expletive *it *involved?

Suggestions or pointers to the literature would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
George Aaron Broadwell
Dept. of Anthropology, SUNY
Albany, NY 12222
g.broadwell at albany.edu
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