Object raising: job sharing is difficult if~

Question

For employees, opting for the flexibility of job sharing may mean giving up some of the benefits received for full-time work. In addition, job sharing is difficult if tasks aren't easily divisible or if two people do not work or communicate well with one another.
[Source: Reading for Results Ninth Edition by Laraine Flemming]
Underlined clause doesn't apply to object-raising because after "difficult" comes just "if" clause.
So, I'd like to know how "job sharing" becomes the subject of "is difficult."
Thank you in advance for your help.

Clive · Accepted Answer

Do you have the same concern about these sentences?
eg Job sharing is difficult.
eg If tasks aren't easily divisible or if two people do not work or communicate well with one another, job sharing is difficult.

Clive

CalifJim · Answer

park sang joonI'd like to know how "job sharing" becomes the subject of "is difficult."

Does object-raising really have anything to do with it? Are you possibly talking about some other kind of transformation?

It is difficult to share jobs. > To share jobs is difficult. > Job sharing is difficult.

CJ

Park sang joon · Answer

Thank you, Clive, for your very kind answer.

Thank you, Mr.Jim, for your very valuable answer.

Wikipedia refers to it as "tough movement."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tough_movement>

Then I'd like to know if as a subject of be + "tough, easy, difficult, hard, interesting, amusing, pleasure, problem, surprise or so on," I can use a to-infinitive, gerund, and compound noun derived from non-finite verbal phrase.

CalifJim · Answer

park sang joon"tough movement."

There is no "tough movement" involved. Tough movement is a way of analyzing a sentence which already has the form

This problem is difficult to solve.

You explain this structure by saying it began as To solve this problem is difficult, and then was transformed into the sentence above.
__________________

Your sentence doesn't have that form. There is no infinitive in Job sharing is difficult. Therefore, it's only a theoretical curiosity whether we can invent a way to relate it to a form with an infinitive. The corresponding sentence (with an infinitive) that illustrates tough movement is Jobs are difficult to share, but the meaning becomes obscure because the term "job sharing" is the standard way of expressing that idea in the business world.

You can't blindly perform all these transformations and expect each transformation to produce an idiomatic sentence.

park sang joonI'd like to know if as a subject of be + "tough, easy, difficult, ..." I can use a to-infinitive, gerund, and compound noun derived from non-finite verbal phrase.

If it has some appropriate meaning, of course you can use it, though an infinitive subject in initial position is usually not very idiomatic.

To fish is easy. (not very idiomatic)
It is easy to fish. (idiomatic)
Fishing is easy. (idiomatic)
Ice fishing is easy. (idiomatic)

Note, however, that none of these has anything to do with tough movement because there is no object of "fish".

CJ

Object raising: job sharing is difficult if~

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