Predicates and Their Subjects /
Predicates and their Subjects is an in-depth study of the syntax-semantics interface focusing on the structure of the subject-predicate relation. Starting from where the author's 1983 dissertation left off, the book argues that there is syntactic constraint that clauses (small and tensed) are c...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Dordrecht :
Springer Netherlands,
2004.
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| Series: | Studies in linguistics and philosophy ;
74. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | Predicates and their Subjects is an in-depth study of the syntax-semantics interface focusing on the structure of the subject-predicate relation. Starting from where the author's 1983 dissertation left off, the book argues that there is syntactic constraint that clauses (small and tensed) are constructed out of a one-place unsaturated expression, the predicate, which must be applied to a syntactic argument, its subject. The author shows that this predication relation cannot be reduced to a thematic relation or a projection of argument structure, but must be a purely syntactic constraint. Chapters in the book show how the syntactic predication relation is semantically interpreted, and how the predication relation explains constraints on DP-raising and on the distribution of pleonastics in English. The second half of the book extends the theory of predication to cover copular constructions; it includes an account of the structure of small clauses in Hebrew, of the use of `be' in predicative and identity sentences in English, and concludes with a study of the meaning of the verb `be'. |
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| Item Description: | Electronic resource. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (372 pages) |
| ISBN: | 9789401006903 (electronic bk.) 9401006903 (electronic bk.) |
| ISSN: | 0924-4662 ; |