A Semantic Argument for Complex Predicates (original) (raw)
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Estudios ingleses de la Universidad …, 1995
* Wc are al! happy: che inforntcttion u¡, ' (iv) * Tite informa/ion up aítd 1/te iig/t/s o/f.. Wheo he deals wáh the (mis)/akejor examples, Aarts himself recegoises that insícad of asserltng ChaC for is the inflecticoal elemeol. (he whcle strueture cculd be analysed as ((idiematic en markcd» (p. 123), which sflesses Che eapricieus charaeter cf the inflectinnal status cf os, froin or fon. PRO is «a neo-cvcrt NP. j.c. an NP whieh appears tobe synlaetically active, hence syo-Caclieally represented, but which has oc cvert manifestatien. (...) 1111 is charaeterized by (he feature cempositien [+anaphcr, +prcncminall» (flaegentan 1991: 237). 'Ihe analysis given by Aarts te. fer jostance. (34h) is: / described ¡ nltemj N [PRO~os cíoWn5¡~..
The typology of non-argument clauses (Full version)
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In this article we look at a case of secondary grammaticalization in English which entails the development of originally adverbial subordinators into complement-clause connectives. The study systematizes our earlier findings regarding the adverbial links but, if, though, lest, as if, as though, and like, which over time have come to realize a subsidiary function as equivalents (or near-equivalents) of the major declarative complementizers that and zero in certain specific contexts. We show that minor declarative complementizers are typically associated with the expression of subjectivity and irreality. As such, they are usually attested in complementation structures in which subjectivity is also at hand (e.g. they are complements to specific predicate-types occurring in non-assertive environments). The development discussed here illustrates grammaticalization both at the level of clause links and at the level of clause-combining.
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After reviewing the different meanings attributed to the concept ‘complex predicate’, a set of syntactic diagnostics for the identification of a complex predicated is established. This set of diagnostics is then discussed in relation to modern and old Romance structures such as: (i) auxiliary constructions (with habere, esse, and other verbs), most of which emerged in the passage from Latin to Romance, and their Tense-Mood-Aspect make-up; (ii) the periphrastic passive compared to the reflexive passive (with special reference to past participle agreement, the inventory of passive auxiliaries, the double passive, and the ordering of elements in the passive cluster); (iii) aspectual auxiliaries; (iv) modal complex predicates; (v) causative complex predicates; and (vi) complex predicates headed by perception verbs. Putting aside the various meanings associated with the concept ‘complex predicate’ and the enormous variety of the syntactic structures which to varying degress satisfy the complex predicate diagnostics, this chapter seeks an answer to the deeper question of how the Romance languages are theoretically and empirically relevant for a better understanding of complex predicates.
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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.