Predicates In English Research Articles

Resultative Predicate and Argument Structure: A Minimalist Approach

This paper investigates the semantic and the syntactic behavior of resultative predicates (RPs) in Classical Arabic (CA) and English. It highlights the differences between the universal properties of RPs (principles) and the language particular properties (parameters). The universal properties of RPs (principles) include Affectedness Condition and Direct Object Restriction. The parameters focus on the surface differences between English and CA with respect to the syntactic behavior and realization of RPs. The theoretical framework used here is Chomsky`s Principles and Parameters and the Minimalist Approach.

Variable Behavior of English Predicate Negation and its implications for acquisition

Ponte Academic JournalMar 2016, Volume 72, Issue 3 Variable Behavior of English Predicate Negation and its implications for acquisitionAuthor(s): Paul Juinn Bing Tan ,Paul Juinn Bing Tan, Phillip PotamitesJ. Ponte - Mar 2016 - Volume 72 - Issue 3 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2016.3.12 Abstract:Although verb-negation sequencing has been analyzed as a discrete parameter, this study reports on its variable manifestation in Moby Dick.1 Meanwhile, though contraction is an evidently optional phenomenon, it approaches near determinism in Huckleberry Finn. Thus, arguments from Zwicky and Pullum (1983)�s syntactic idiom analysis of auxiliary-negation contraction (ANcon) are used to emphasize non-modularized, a posteriori, probabilistic requirements of the acquisition process. While shortcomings of simple-minded string frequency acquisition are acknowledged (cf. Krug (1998)), proceeding from imitation to generalization would seem to require both compositional and decompositional capabilities, conditioned by phonological, lexical, syntactic class, and string frequency effects, in both ontogenic and phylogenic development. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

The Predicate in English and Albanian Grammar Books

In almost all traditional and modern grammar books, it is admitted that simple sentence has two obligatory elements, its subject and predicate, which are named in different terms. On most occasions it is observed that the notion of the subject and predicate is known with other terms as topic- focus by Hokiti or theme-rheme by representatives of School of Pague. Representatives of Functional grammar are based on this approach as well. Certainly, these terms do not match with subject and predicate as a syntactic category of the language. Definitions of the subject and predicate often encounter problems, because the sentence contains not only obligatory elements it contains other optional elements as well. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p637

The Principle of Inherent Complication of the English Predicate

There is a great variety of textbooks on the English language. The consecution of teaching English in them is different. Students often learn English without understanding it. The basis of any language is its grammar. The basis of English grammar is a predicate. Analysis of the English predicate structure allowed to reveal its inherent logicality that has a character of a law. The logicality is described with the help of a table and equations. The optimum consecution of the English predicate teaching is given in the form of a scheme. This logicality became a basis for working out an optimum consecution of teaching English that makes the process of studying English intelligible and consequently much easier and shorter.

Lexicalization and grammaticalization

In this article we show that verbo-nominal expressions be on the/one’s way/road emerged as lexical composite predicates in Old English. These templates came to be elaborated by directional adjuncts, adjuncts describing states or events, and purpose clauses. In Late Modern English, the structure with a to-infinitive was functionally reinterpreted as a secondary auxiliary + lexical head, whose core sense is imminential aspect. On the basis of this case study, we develop a theoretical reflection on the differences between lexicalization and grammaticalization, as they emerge within a functional-constructional approach. On the syntagmatic axis, we adopt Boye & Harder’s (2007, 2012) principles for distinguishing lexicalized from grammaticalized uses on the basis of their having primary or secondary status in discourse usage. On the paradigmatic axis, we rethink the neo-Firthian distinction between lexis and grammar in diachronic terms. Individual lexical items are defined by their collocations (Sinclair 1991) and grammatical values by their systemic interdependencies (Halliday 1992). Lexicalization is then characterized by the development of distinctive collocational networks and grammaticalization by the acquisition of the defining interdependencies with values from related grammatical systems.

General linguistic principles of the secondary predication in English

General linguistic principles of the secondary predication in English

Tense and aspect (in)compatibility in Serbian matrix and subordinate clauses

This paper proposes a compositional temporal analysis of restrictions on perfective aspect in morphological present tense contexts in matrix and (certain) embedded clauses in Serbian. The main idea is that the availability of perfective aspect depends on the duration of the time interval with respect to which the event is ordered. This time interval is further determined by the interplay of temporal and aspectual components higher in the structure. Moreover, it is shown that the observed restrictions on perfective aspect in Serbian are, to a large extent, parallel to restrictions on non-progressive, episodic, non-stative, non-generic predicates in English. Following the assumption that these predicates contain a perfective component (Kamp and Reyle, 1993; Smith, 1991; Cowper, 1998; Wurmbrand, 2014, inter alia), the proposed analysis allows for the unification of Aspect in Serbian and the abovementioned predicates in English.

The Degree Semantics Parameter and cross-linguistic variation

The standard degree analysis of gradability in English holds that the function of degree morphology, such as the comparative, measure phrases, and degree adverbs, is to bind a degree variable located in the lexical semantics of gradable predicates. In this paper, I investigate gradation structures in Washo (isolate/Hokan), and claim that this language systematically lacks degree morphology of this sort. I propose that this gap in the functional inventory of Washo stems from a parameter on whether languages are able to introduce degree variables into the logical form that can be bound by such operators, providing further cross-linguistic support for a similar proposal made by Beck et al. (2009) for Motu (Austronesian). Specifically, I argue that gradable predicates in Washo do not introduce a degree variable. Consequently, if we assume that gradable predicates in English are type ⟨d, ⟨e, t⟩⟩, then Washo and English must differ in their lexical semantics for gradable predicates. Alternatively, if we want to maintain lexical uniformity between the two languages (i.e., that gradable predicates in English don’t themselves introduce degrees), then we must place variation at the level of a grammatical mechanism that introduces degrees in English for degree operators to bind, but which is lacking in Washo. The results of this investigation thus inform questions about the nature of cross-linguistic variation, specifically the division of labor between variation in functional categories and the lexicon. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/sp.8.6 BibTeX info

Five Forms of English Predicates and Adjuncts

Five Forms of English Predicates and Adjuncts

On the increase of speaker-orientation from modality to mood of ‘fear’-predicates in English

On the increase of speaker-orientation from modality to mood of ‘fear’-predicates in English

A General Overview on the Nominal Predicate in English and Albanian Languages

The aim of this paper is to make a comparison of the nominal predicate in two different languages, English and Albanian. We have tried to make a general analysis of this part of speech, studying it from the semantic, morphological and syntactical point of view. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.2n1p399

English Predicate Inversion: Towards Data-driven Learning

English Predicate Inversion: Towards Data-driven Learning

Mandarin Secondary Predicates

In the first part, I provide some data of secondary predicates in English and Mandarin on consequence-depictives (SUBJ-oriented) and resultatives (OBJ-oriented), which adopt an intransitive verb/adjective for their secondary predicate. In the second half, I present an account of the linking issue on ”resultative” compound predicates in Mandarin Chinese, building on the LFG/LMT work of Her (2007), who assumed that the argument structures of each predicate merge to give a composite structure, which determines whether a resultative sentence is semantically causative or not, and from which the arguments link to grammatical functions. I argue here that the facts require a more articulated semantics, for unlike Her's analysis, the determination of causativity and the linking of the arguments of the two predicates is fully an issue of semantics; specifically, I argue that there are two types of secondary predicates in terms of their semantics, namely those with internally- and externally-caused changes of state (see Levin and Rappaport Hovav: 1995, McKoon and Macfarland: 2000), which are respectively ”indirect-causative” and ”direct-causative”; causativity should be categorised into three types, non-causative, indirect-causative, and direct causative. I further argue that the argument undergoing internally-caused change always links to Actor and that the one undergoing externally-caused change (a truly ”affected” argument) always links to Undergoer.

L1 effects on the emergence of ESL sentence processing skills of Chinese and Korean ESL learners

This study examines the emergence of lower-level ESL sentence processing skills involved in integrating English words into predicate structures on-line. The aim of the present study is to examine how the L1 phrase structure and corresponding L1 word integration skills of ESL learners influence their corresponding ESL sentence processing skills in an on-line English sentence reading task. The study examined the English predicate and verb phrase processing skills of a group of Chinese ESL learners whose language has right-branching L1 verb phrase structures (head-complement word order) and a group of proficiency-matched Korean ESL learners whose native language only allows left-branching L1 verb phrase structures (i.e., complement-head word order). The Chinese ESL group (n = 20) was significantly faster than the Korean ESL group (n = 18) in reading and integrating direct object nouns into English predicate phrase structures, though there were no significant differences comprehending the sentences. In addition, the Chinese ESL group was significantly more accurate in reading and comprehending transitive sentences in which the direct objects had an embedded relative clause. The results suggest that L1 word integration skills influence and shape the emergence of on-line ESL word integration

Remarks on Depictive Predication in English

Remarks on Depictive Predication in English

Syntactic and Semantic Properties of Depictive Secondary Predicates in English

Syntactic and Semantic Properties of Depictive Secondary Predicates in English

Three-participant events in the languages of the world: towards a crosslinguistic typology

Although one- and two-participant events, as expressed by intransitive and transitive constructions, have been extensively studied from a crosslinguistic perspective, little work has been done on three-participant events and the ways they operate in different languages. Where there is description and analysis it is typically confined to syntactic three-place predicates ignoring functional equivalent constructions in languages where such events may be realized with other argument configurations. Also, where analysis exists, it is typically limited to those three-participant events that get lexicalized as three-place predicates in English and other well-known languages. In this article, we explore the semantic categories of three-participant events and outline a range of different strategies for coding them crosslinguistically. We show that, as alternatives to syntactic three-place strategies, there are a variety of constructions that are syntactically two-place but express a third participant by some other means — morphological, syntactic, or pragmatic.

The Middle Voice with Mental and Verbal Predicates in English and Dutch

The Middle Voice with Mental and Verbal Predicates in English and Dutch

Revisiting English Secondary Predicates: can the Window be Opened Wider?

Abstract The semantic, pragmatic and suprasegmental integration of the secondary predicate in the sentence as well as control issues have called into question the homogeneous analysis of secondary predicates, which has led to the recognition of two different configurations, namely, depictive and resultative constructions. Once each construction has been delimited on structural, semantic/pragmatic, morphosyntactic and intonational grounds, this paper deals with the widespread assumption that each type of secondary predicate must be assigned a distinct syntactic analysis, and tackles this task by suggesting syntactic solutions couched in a basic constituency framework. The final proposal allows not only the distinction between depictives/resultatives and other similar competing constructions but also its accommodation within the theory of transitivity from an English‐specific perspective.

Secondary predication in Russian

The paper makes two contributions to semantic typology of secondary predicates. It provides an explanation of the fact that Russian has no resultative secondary predicates, relating this explanation to the interpretation of secondary predicates in English. And it relates depictive secondary predicates in Russian, which usually occur in the instrumental case, to other uses of the instrumental case in Russian, establishing here, too, a difference to English concerning the scope of the secondary predication phenomenon.