A Conceptual Semantic Analysis of Thematic Structures In Predicate Nominals (original) (raw)
In standard logic, predicate nominals (e.g., Max is a cat) are treated like other predicates. However, as Moro (1997) points out, predicate nominals are thematically unlike verbal predicates. Since many nouns either assign no thematic roles at all, or assign roles only to arguments within their own NP, it is unclear how the subject NP of a predicate nominal gets a thematic role. Moro argues that in such cases the subject NP receives no thematic role, thus violating the theta-criterion. Furthermore, he argues that sometimes deverbal nouns in predicate NPs can assign thematic roles to their main-clause subjects. This analysis results in some puzzling grammaticality restrictions which Moro describes but does not explain. In this paper, I analyze predicate nominals as involving constructions which impose a classifying or identifying relationship between the main-clause subject and the predicate NP. Thus, the main-clause subject receives a thematic role from the construction, but not from the predicative noun. Besides maintaining the theta-criterion, this constructional analysis accounts semantically for the problematic grammaticality patterns which Moro describes. This analysis also explains the subtle semantic differences between deverbal nouns in predicate nominals and their verbal paraphrases. More generally, I present here a case in which the inadequacies of nouns for the function of main-clause predication are compensated for by the meaningful constructions in which they occur. Thus, I posit constructional compensation as one means by which conflicts between lexical items and their syntactic and semantic contexts are resolved.
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Van Geenhoven 1995). The proposal that noun phrases in argument positions might denote properties is perhaps surprising at first. If verbs and similar predicates are assumed to denote functions on individuals, and if the fundamental semantic composition rule available is functor-argument application, NPs would seem to have to be interpreted as either entity-or quantifier-denoting. It is not obvious, under these assumptions, how an NP which denotes a property can compose semantically with the predicate that selects for it.
The syntax and semantics of descriptive V-de constructions: A primary predication analysis
International Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 2018
This paper tackles the long-standing problem of the phrase structure of the descriptive V-de construction in Mandarin, and proposes a variant of the Primary Predication analysis. I argue that the suffix-de is a nominalizing head that turns the verb to which it attaches into a nominal event argument, which is in turn predicated over by the descriptive adjectival phrase, the primary predicate of the construction. This syntactic analysis allows for a straightforward explanation for the presupposition-focus semantics of this construction based on structured event quantification. In addition, it is shown that previous arguments that go against the Primary Predication hypothesis (including the distribution of the A-not-A form and negation, and the scope relation between an IP-level element and the adjectival phrase) either do not constitute counterevidence or are simply irrelevant. Further support for the proposal is provided that draws on a number of syntactic properties of the descriptive V-de construction and on the distinction between the descriptive adjectival phrase on the one hand and secondary predicates and adverbial adjuncts on the other hand.
On the Predicate-Argument Structure: Internal and Absorbing Scope
2017
Valency filling is considered a major mechanism for constructing the semantic structure of the sentence from semantic structures of words. This approach requires a broader view of valency and actant, covering all kinds of actant-bearing words and all types of valency filling. We introduce the concept of scope as a generalization of actant: it is any fragment of a Syntactic (SyntScope) or Semantic Structure (SemScope) that fills a valency of a predicate. Actant is a particular case of scope. We discuss two classes of situations, mostly on the material of Russian, that manifest nonisomorphism between SyntScope and SemScope: (a) meaning α that fills a valency of word L constitutes only a part of the meaning of word L′ (internal scope); (b) predicate π is an internal component of the meaning of word L; π extends its valency (distinct from valencies of L) to words different from L (absorbing scope).
To appear in 'Reconstruction Effects in Relative Clauses', edited by Manfred Krifka and Mathias Schenner, De Gruyter, Berlin
NPs with intensional relative clauses such as 'the book John needs to write' pose a significant challenge for semantic theory. Such NPs act like referential terms, yet they do not stand for a particular actual object. This paper will develop a semantic analysis of such NPs on the basis of the notion of a variable object. The analysis avoids a range of difficulties that a more standard analysis based on the notion of an individual concept would face. Most importantly, unlike the latter, the proposed analysis can be carried over NPs such as 'the number of people that fit into the bus', which describe tropes (particularized properties).
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The Redundancy of Lexical Categories
The Redundancy of Lexical Categories, 1998
"In this paper I argue that the familiar lexical category labels, N, V, A, P or equivalently the features such as [±N, ±V] are redundant in a theory which admits a level of argument structure. I modify Zwart’s (1992) conception of a-structure by arguing that major class members always include a ‘referential role’: for nouns, (for ‘eventuality’) for verbs and (‘attribute’) for adjectives. is coindexed with the role of the modificand. A-structures are canonically associated with sets of F(unctional) features, but ‘mixed’ a-structure types may be associated with ‘mixed’ F-features, without the need to postulate ‘mixed’ lexical categories. Categorial information can thus be read off a-structure representations without the need for purely syntactic category features. I first develop a (constructional) semantics for compound nouns (N N) in which the a-structure of the modifying noun receives a new r(eferential) role with demotion of the original role. The new role is coindexed with the role of the modificand and the attributive relationship interpreted as some pragmatically characterized relationship, ρ. Relational adjectives are given a similar argument structure representation with the same semantic interpretation, but in their lexical representation. I sketch an analysis of participles in which the role of the verb is demoted by introduction of an role. Deverbal nominals are obtained by demoting the role and adding an role (essentially naming an event). By assuming that a-structure is articulated we can account for the typologically observed patterns of argument realization in nominalizations."
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