Kind‐Level Predicates of Events Inside Another Predication☆

Abstract

AbstractKind level predicates of events such as three times, the third time, and occasionally can occur as a predicate of an independent predication, or appear as an adverbial, with an event kind‐denoting expression as their argument. The reduced forms of such predicates can surface inside a nominal of another predication, e.g., Four thousand ships passed through the lock last year; Susi bought a second guitar, and An occasional sailor strolled by. This paper argues that these predicates are displaced from their base‐positions so that an event kind‐denoting expression in the verbal category can be merged as the subject in the event‐kind predication. The proposed overt movement displaces the categorial features of an expression, leaving its semantic features in situ, an operation symmetrical to a covert movement, which displaces the semantic features without categorial features.