Abstract
AbstractThis squib argues that adverbs can act as primary predicates. In Polish, a relatively large class of adverbs are frequently used in predicative constructions when the subject of predication is an InfP (infinitival phrase) or a CP referring to abstract objects: event kinds or facts. This requirement of a purely verbal rather than nominal subject of predication is the main difference between predicative adverbs and predicative adjectives, explaining contrasts between their syntactic behavior in extraction and coordination. Predicative adverbs usually express attitudes toward event kinds or facts and often combine with dative experiencers; in the case of InfP subjects, dative experiencers obligatorily control the subject.
Highlights
It is commonly—even if usually tacitly—assumed that adverbs cannot act as primary predicates
We demonstrate on the basis of attested data1 that, in Polish, a certain—relatively large and varied—class of adverbs may be productively used as predicates in copular constructions, namely, in constructions in which the subject is a verbal constituent—a complementizer phrase (CP) or a bare infinitival phrase (InfP; not to be confused with InflP or IP, i.e., Inflectional Phrase)—denoting a fact or an event kind
The main aim of this squib was to refute the assumption that adverbs cannot act as primary predicates
Summary
It is commonly—even if usually tacitly—assumed that adverbs cannot act as primary predicates It is not fully clear whether it is meant as a crosslinguistic generalization, an explicit statement to this effect may be found in a prominent monograph on predication (Rothstein 2001:129): “I assume that the absence of a predication relation is because adverbs are just not syntactic predicates. The only adverbial predicates mentioned in Roy 2013, a monograph on nonverbal predication, are lexical idiosyncrasies such as the Irish and Spanish equivalents of well in Jane is well The aim of this squib is to show that it is not universally true that “adverbs are just not syntactic predicates” or that they may act as primary predicates only exceptionally. We demonstrate on the basis of attested data that, in Polish, a certain—relatively large and varied—class of adverbs may be productively used as predicates in copular constructions, namely, in constructions in which the subject is a verbal constituent—a complementizer phrase (CP) or a bare infinitival phrase (InfP; not to be confused with InflP or IP, i.e., Inflectional Phrase)—denoting a fact or an event kind.
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