抄録
In Present-day English, there are some cases in which inanimate subjects are selected by a class of perception verbs, especially see, which denote the existence or causation of the events expressed by their complements. It is suggested that the semantic difference between existence and causation is associated not only with the types of inanimate subjects, i.e. time/location vs. others, but also with the two possible complement structures of see, i.e. Asp(ect)P vs. VP. Moreover, it is proposed that see was grammaticalized into a light verb denoting existence/causation during the Late Modern English period via generalization, shift of meaning, and semantic bleaching.
