John made it so that ...

[chris brew]

This strikes me  as similar to
John made it possible that I could attend

or

John made it happen that I could attend



although I don't have a ready-to-hand analysis
of either.

How about

John ensured that I could attend

and

John made it sure that I could attend

are these the same?



On 06/02/2008, George Aaron Broadwell <g.broadwell at albany.edu> wrote:
>
> 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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