Secondary predicates in Croatian. In: Schroeder, Chr., Hentschel, G. & Boeder, W. (eds.) 2008: /Secondary predicates in Eastern European languages and beyond. /Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag der Carl von Ossietzky-Universität (= /Studia Slavica Oldenburgensia/ 16). (original) (raw)

The goal of this analysis is to point out formal and semantic characteristics of secondary predicates in Croatian, concentrating mainly on depictives. Among the topics discussed are case patterns, controllers of depictives, the use of definite and indefinite adjectives, and semantic and structural ambiguities connected with depictive (or circumstancial) constructions. Also dealt with was the relation of secondary predicates to adverbials and attributes as well as the distinction between depictives and circumstantials. The last section summarises semantic and grammatical characteristics of depictives on the basis of corpus examples. The analysis has only touched on some problems that deserve detailed study but have not received enough attention so far; these include the distinction between postponed attributes and depictives, appositions and depictives, a detailed semantic classification of kao-phrases in Croatian, and semantic, prosodic, and pragmatic factors that distinguish circumstantials and depictives.