Suggested Answers for Check Questions

The Extended Projection Principle requires that clauses must have subjects. Pleonastic subjects (it and there) are made to appear by the EPP when the clausal complement of a raising verb is finite, hence there is no reason for the subject of the lower clause to move since it can get case-marked in its position in the lower clause. In such cases a pleonastic subject (an element that does not require a theta-role) is inserted into the structure to satisfy the EPP.