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 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'.

ISBN 1402020589   Weight (grammes) 1150 ISBN13 9781402020582 (What's this?)   Published in New York, NY Publisher Springer-Verlag New York Inc.   Series ISSN 74 Imprint Springer-Verlag New York Inc.   Series title Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy Format Paperback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 06 Oct 2004   Width (mm) 156 Pages 372   Spine width (mm) 19 Volumes 1   Academic level Postgraduate

Introduction. 1. Why 'subject' is a grammatical concept. Part I: The Syntax of Predication. 2. The grammatical theory of predication. 3. The syntactic properties of subjects. 4. Predication as a thematic relation. 5. The Syntactic Forms of Predication. Part II: The Semantics of Predication. 6. Interpretation. 7. The semantics of pleonastics. Part III: The Syntax and Semantics of Copula Constructions. 8. Predication structures in Modern Hebrew identity constructions. 9. Copular constructions in English. 10. The Meaning of 'Be'.

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