Predicative Constructions

Predicative constructions are ubiquitous. A recent count in a Dutch corpus revealed that one in four sentences contains at least one predicative construction. It is no surprise then that they have drawn a lot of attention, both in linguistics and in logic. Most of the existing treatments in generative grammar—transformational as well as monostratal—stress the differences between predicative and transitive constructions, and assume that the former show a discrepancy between syntactic and semantic structure. This is in line with the Frege-Russell Treatment of predicative constructions in logic, but it leads to a number of problems, especially for the analysis of nominal, infinitival, gerundial and clausal predicative complements.

As an alternative, Frank Van Eynde develops a treatment in line with the Quine-Montague analysis of the English copula. It is based on the assumption that the syntactic and semantic structure of predicative constructions are homomorphous and it is cast in the Typed Feature Structure of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Since this approach is new, it is motivated extensively, not only with the classical qualitative weighing of pros and cons but also with detailed quantitative investigations of treebanks.

Frank Van Eynde is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

1 Introduction

1.1 Distinctive Properties of Predicative Constructions
1.2 A Second Look at the Distinctive Properties
1.3 The Freegean Approach
1.4 The Montagovian Approach
1.5 Treebanking
1.6 Conclusion

I Two Instances of the Freegean Treatment

2 The Small Clause Treatment

2.1 The Government and Binding Framework
2.2 Small Clauses

2.2.1 Copular Constructions
2.2.2 Object-oriented Predicative Complements
2.2.3 Small Clauses and X-Bar Theory
2.2.4 Elaborations and Modifications
2.2.5 Summing Up

2.3 Evaluation

2.3.1 Constituency
2.3.2 Subject Raising
2.3.3 The Bar-level of the Small Clause

2.4 Conclusion

3 The Monostratal Subject Raising Treatment

3.1 The HPSG Framework

3.1.1 Typed Feature Structures
3.1.2 Syntax
3.1.3 Semantics
3.1.4 The Lexicon
3.1.5 Summing Up

3.2 The HPSG Treatment of Predicative Constructions

3.2.1 Syntax
3.2.2 Semantics
3.2.3 Summing Up

3.3 Evaluation

3.3.1 Subject Raising
3.3.2 The PRD Feature
3.3.3 Type Shifting
3.3.4 The Semantic Vacuity of the Copula

3.4 Conclusion

II A Monostratal Montagovian Treatment

4 A Typology of Predicate Selectors

4.1 Quine and Montague on the Copula
4.2 The Predicate Selctors

4.2.1 A Format for the Representation of Predicate Selectors
4.2.2 Linking
4.2.3 Predicate Selectors vs. Subject Raisers
4.2.4 On the Meaning of the Copula

4.3 Conclusion

5 Two Types of Predicative Complements

5.1 The Open Predicative Complements

5.1.1 Adjectives
5.1.2 Participles
5.1.3 Passive Infinitives and Gerundival Forms
5.1.4 Adpositions and PPS
5.1.5 Summing Up

5.2 The Closed Predicative Complements

5.2.1 Predicative Nominals
5.2.2 Gerunds
5.2.3 Nominal Infinitives
5.2.4 Clausal Predicates
5.1.5 Summing Up

5.3 Conclusion

6 Agreement Between Predicative Complements and Their Target

6.1 Open Predicative Complements and Their Target

6.1.1 Concord vs. Index Agreement
6.1.2 Index Sharing
6.1.3 Overt vs. Covert Agreement
6.1.4 The Other Open Predicative Complements
6.1.5 Summing Up

6.2 Closed Predicative Complements abd tgeur Target
6.3 Conclusion

III Treebanking

7 A Treebank and a Search Tool

7.1 The Spoken Dutch Treebank
7.2 TIGERSearch

7.2.1 Retrieving the Predicative Complements
7.2.2 Adding Constraints on Categories
7.2.3 Head Hunting
7.2.4 Adding Constraints on Words

7.3 Conclusion

8 Verb Spotting

8.1 The Subject-oriented Predicate Selectors

8.1.1 On the Notion kopperwerkwoord
8.1.2 A Typology of Copular Verbs
8.1.3 Further Evidence for the Distinction Between Open and Closed Predicative Complements
8.1.4 Summing Up

8.2 The Object-oriented Predicate Selectors

8.2.1 A Semantic Typology of Object-oriented Predicate Selectors
8.2.2 The Compatibility with Closed Predicative Complements

8.3 Predicative Modifiers
8.4 Conclusion

9 Conclusion

9.1 Looking Back

9.1.1 Two Instances of the Freegean Treatment
9.1.2 A Monostatal Montagovian Treatment
9.1.3 Treebanking

9.2 Looking Ahead

A Abbreviations

B A Synopsis of the Grammar

B.1 Type Hierarchy
B.2 Feature Declarations
B.3 Constraints on Phrasal Types
B.4 Constraints on Lexical Types

B.4.1 Part-of-Speech Types
B.4.2 Age-Selection Types
B.4.3 Linking Types
B.4.4 Maximal Types
B.4.5 A Constraint on Words

B.5 Lexical Rules

B.5.1 Inflectional Rules
B.5.2 Derivational Rules

C The CGN Treebank

C.1 Lexical Categories
C.2 Phrasal Categories
C.3 Dependency Labels

Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index

May 2015

ISBN (Paperback): 1575868377 (9781575868370)
ISBN (Electronic): 1575868865 (9781575868868)

Predicative Constructions

Contents