Marcel den Dikken, Relators and Linkers : The Syntax of Predication, Predicate Inversion, and Copulas (Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 47), Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2006. xi+351pp (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Syntactic Disguises of the Predication Operator
Studia Linguistica, 1999
Taking Bowers (1993) as our point of departure, we argue that natural language employs a predication operator that may be lexicalised and constitute the head of a syntactic projection. First, following Bowers' suggestion that the English particle as may lexicalise the predication operator, we show that the corresponding particle som of certain clauses in Norwegian serves the same function. Then, departing from Bowers, we argue that the copula and certain prepositions may lexicalise the predication operator as well. Last, we argue against Bowers' non-unitary construal of the verb phrase as made up of a V-projection and an independent predication projection. Instead, we adduce evidence that the predication operator is directly lexicalised by the main verb, in effect claiming that the unmarked verb phrase is a unitary VP, with V' constituting a Fregean unsaturated function exactly in virtue of having the predication operator incorporated into the main verb.
A Syntax-based Analysis of Predication
Semantics and Linguistic Theory, 2015
Adjectives and common nouns are currently assigned the same semantic analysis: both categories are said to denote sets of individuals (type <e,t». We will show that this assumption is empirically inadequate and we will assume instead that adjectives denote properties (viewed as primitive entities, not as sets of individuals) instantiated in individuals, whereas (number marked) common nouns basically denote sets of individuals. Correlated with this distinction, we will propose the existence of two distinct rules of predication: (i) an entity is a member of a set of entities and (ii) a property is localized in an entity. Our analysis is based on the Aristotelian view that has become the basic postulate of property theory (Chierchia 1982, 1985, Chierchia and Turner 1988, Fox 2000), namely the existence of two basic types of entities: individuals and properties or, as Chierchia puts it, 'predicable and non predicable individuals'. Our empirical investigation will cover a wide range of phenomena: (i) the different syntactic distribution of adjectives, bare NPs, and Number Phrases (NumPs); (ii) the contrast between ce and ilIelle 'helshe' in French; (iii) the behavior of names of profession in Romance copula sentences, which will be extended to bare NPs of the type fils d'avocat 'son of lawyer' and ami (avec Pierre) 'friend (with Pierre)'; (iv) the contrast between bare plurals and bare singulars.
Proceedings of the Workshop on Syntax of Predication, Nov 2-3, 2001, ZAS-Berlin
ZAS Papers in Linguistics, 2001
This volume presents working versions of presentations heard at and selected for the Workshop on Syntax of Predication, held at ZAS, Berlin, on November 2-3, 2001 (except the editor’s own paper). Predication is a many-faceted topic which involves both syntax and semantics and the interface between them. This is reflected in the papers of the volume.
1998
The paper discusses the structure of non-verbal predication, with particular reference to the role of the copula. Differently from the main tenets of contemporary logico-philosophical and linguistic theories, a model of predication is proposed where the verbal component (specifically, tense information) is regarded as central in establishing the syntactic and semantic relation between a predicate and its subject. It is thus possible to recover some of the insights of the pre-Fregean analysis of predication. The proposed solution has a number of significant consequences for the structure to be assigned to nonverbal predication, in particular for the semantics of 'small clause' constituents, where the predication is established without the copula.
Diadorim, 2019
This paper is focused on the syntax of the predication relations in predicative constructions such as the secondary predication and the small clause constructions. The goals are (i) to consider that adjunction structures à la Chomsky (1986) and May (1985) (opposing category vs. category segments) is an interesting solution to the syntax of predication, if combined with the idea that merge may be symmetrical in terms of projection (if α and β are merged, either α or β may project (CHOMSKY, 1995)); and (ii) to present a formal and unified approach to the grammar of different kinds of predication, based on Carreira (2015), specially emphasizing cases of small clauses and secondary predication. This paper presents new data from Brazilian Portuguese (BP), which challenges the classical analysis, as in Williams (1980), Stowell (1983) and Rothstein (1983) and minimalist analysis such as in Den Dikken (2006). This research is based upon the Minimalist Program by Chomsky (1995) and others. As we will argue, by exploring this mechanism, we might be able to provide a unified account for different types of predication.
This paper discusses copula constructions in English, German, and Danish and argues that a uniform analysis of all copula constructions is inappropriate. I provide evidence from German that there should be a raising variant of the copula in addition to an identificational copula. A unary schema is provided that maps referential NPs that can be used as arguments onto predicational NPs. Data from Danish shows that predicational NPs can be subjects in specificational structures. An account for such specificational structures is provided and the different behaviour of predicational and specificational structures with regard to question tags is explained. A similar contrast can be found in German left dislocation structures, which follows from the assumptions made in this paper. A modified treatment of complex predicate formation allows for a reduction of selectional features (that is abolishing of XCOMP or VCOMP) and for a uniform treatment of predicational phrases in copula constructions and resultative secondary predicates. This yields an account for constituent order variants that remained unexplained by earlier analyses.
On the internal and external syntax of depictive secondary predication
Papers from the International Workshop on Secondary Predication 2021, Masashi Kawashima, Hideki Kishimoto, Kazushige Moriyama (eds.), Kobe: Department of Linguistics, Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University. 1–22., 2022
The internal and external syntax of depictive secondary predication constructions are the topic of this paper. A small clause structure with an internal silent (PRO) subject is developed with particular reference to the morphosyntax of (dis)sociatives in Hungarian. The depictive small clause is integrated into the containing syntax via asyndetic specification, which offers an account of the properties of depictives in the realms of extraction, constituency and linear order.