Nonverbal Predication: Copular Sentences at the Syntax-Semantics Interface

By Isabelle Roy

Book Overview

This book considers the syntax and semantics of non-verbal predicates (i.e., nominal, adjectival and prepositional predicates) in copular sentences. Isabelle Roy explores how a single structure for predication can account for the different interpretations of non-verbal predicates. The book departs from earlier studies by arguing in favor of a ternary distinction between defining / characterizing / situation-descriptive predicates rather than the more common stage-level/individual distinction. The distinction is based on two semantic criteria, namely maximality (i.e., whether the predicate describes an eventuality that has spatio-temporal properties or not) and density (i.e. whether the spatio-temporal properties are perceived as atomic or not). The author argues in favor of a strong correlation between the semantics properties of predicates and their internal syntactic structure. Her analysis accounts for seemingly unrelated cross-linguistic data: the indefinite article in
French, the distribution of the two copulas 'ser'/'estar' in Spanish, and case marking on Russian predicates.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199543542
• ISBN13: 9780199543540
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"