Complex predicates and predicate raising

This paper discusses major issues that have arisen in the analysis of sentences with complex predicates in Japanese from early transformational grammar to the present minimalist program. Particular emphasis is placed on the treatment of the causative construction to assess the influence of the lexicalist hypothesis and its aftermath. One recent development in the minimalist program that relates the issue raised by the light verb construction to the problem of complex predicates in general is surveyed. The paper ends by hinting at the human language faculty consisting of two overlapping but distinct grammars, a natural grammar of human instinct and a rational grammar of human intellect.