Relational Predicates Research Articles

On the Syntax of Agreement in the Left Periphery with special reference to Honorific Agreement

The first goal of this paper is to provide a predication analysis of addressee honorific endings in the form of speech style particles, such as -yo or -supnita, which are often considered the result of agreement with an addressee. Specifically, building on a recent view that there are independent functional projections for discourse arguments in the left periphery, I suggest that this type of agreement is a predication relation between the speech style particle under SA⁰ and an addressee in Spec-SAP. The second goal is to offer an Agree-based analysis of two types of non-subject-controlled honorific -si: topic-controlled -si and addressee-controlled -si. Given that honorific -si in both cases is available even in the absence of an honorifiable subject, I maintain that both types are the result of Agree between a topical element in Spec-TopP and a verbal complex raised to Top⁰. I argue, however, that these two types of -si should be distinguished in the availability of a honorifiable topic.

The Puzzle of the Sophist

Abstract The many definitions of sophistry at the beginning of Plato’s Sophist have puzzled scholars just as much as they puzzled the dialogue’s main speakers: the Visitor from Elea and Theaetetus. The aim of this paper is to give an account of that puzzlement. This puzzlement, it is argued, stems not from a logical or epistemological problem, but from the metaphysical problem that, given the multiplicity of accounts, the interlocutors do not know what the sophist essentially is. It transpires that, in order to properly account for this puzzle, one must jettison the traditional view of Plato’s method of division, on which divisions must be exclusive and mark out relations of essential predication. It is then shown on independent grounds that, although Platonic division in the Sophist must express predication relations and be transitive, it need not be dichotomous, exclusive, or express relations of essential predication. Once the requirements of exclusivity and essential predication are dropped, it is possible to make sense of the reasons that the Visitor from Elea and Theaetetus are puzzled. Moreover, with this in hand, it is possible to see Plato making an important methodological point in the dialogue: division on its own without any norms does not necessarily lead to the discovery of essences.

Prorositive Meaning And Its Expression In Syntactic Units

This article analyzes the relationship between language and thought, speech and the expression of proposition in it. Thoughts on the role of the relational predicate in the expression of the proposition are stated.

Interpretation of Predicative Non-Assertive Relations in Structure of Utterance in Discourse of Russian Orthodox Sermon

The categorical affiliation and semantic characteristics of propositions that do not have the status of assertions in the current utterance are considered. Such propositions are denoted by the term “pre-conservative”. It is shown that the preassertive status of propositions is determined by two main factors: the grammatical factor of precedence / following of explicit or implicit predication with respect to the moment of speech and the discourse factor of presentation in the proposition of the preassertive information reflecting religious mentality and religious ideology. The action of these factors gives rise to the phenomenon of asubjectivation. With asubjectivization, the semantic content of a linguistic expression is determined only by the properties of the described situation, and not by the locutionary activity of the subject of speech. It has been established that whole sentences, including those with non-propositional meanings, can receive the “pre-passive” status. It is shown that, in terms of some properties, the preassertive is comparable to a number of units of different articulations of the semantic-syntactic structure of an utterance, however, its specific manifestation in connection with asubjectivation proves that this is a special category in relation to explicit predication. The research was carried out on the basis of the material of the Russian Orthodox sermon. The novelty of the research consists in the characterization of the preassertive as a new syntactic relation on the axis “assertion — non-assertive component” of the utterance. Relevance is determined by the fact that the work develops a fundamentally new aspect of the study of subjectivity in language.

Mismatching nominals and the small clause hypothesis

I propose a comprehensive analysis of what has been commonly referred in the literature to as split, discontinuous noun phrases or split topicalization. Based on data from Basaá, a Narrow Bantu language spoken in Cameroon, I partly capitalize on previous authors such as Mathieu (2004), Mathieu & Sitaridou (2005) and Ott (2015a), who propose that this morphosyntactic phenomenon involves two syntactically unrelated constituents which are only linked semantically in a predication relation in a small clause (Moro 1997, 2000; Den Dikken 1998). According to these analyses, split noun phrases are obtained as a result of predicate inversion across the subject of the small clause. Contrary to/but not against these views, I suggest that what raises in the same context in Basaá is rather the subject of the small clause as a consequence of feature-checking under closest c-command (Chomsky 2000, 2001), and for the purpose of labelling and asymmetrizing an originally symmetric syntactic structure on the surface (Ott 2015a and related work). The fact that the target of movement is the subject and not the predicate of the small clause follows from agreement and ellipsis factors. Given that the subject of predication is a full DP while the predicate is a reduced DP with a null head modifier, the surface word order is attributed to the fact that noun/noun phrase ellipsis is possible if the elided noun is given in the discourse and is recoverable from the morphology of the stranded modifier. This paper offers a theoretical contribution from an understudied language to our understanding of this puzzling nominal construction.

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Article deals with the changes of the meanings of the post nominal adjectives in the process of transformation in the modern English language. On the basis of the linguoculturological approach and the method of linguistic analysis, the characteristic features of the change in the meanings of post-nominative adjectives in the English language have been revealed. In the English language the adjectives can perform the function of predicative. For the semantics of the adjectives which have the predicative function, these adjectives are characterized by inner qualitative diversity. Mainly, qualitative adjectives refer to classical predication and denote the feature of the object directly. Such adjectives have more features of predication. The predicative sign of the adjective, the presence of a connotation of subjective assessment determines its semantics and use. There are differences between the constructions used in the predicate function in phrases that perform the function of the subject and in the altered form of word phrases related attributively and predicatively. The predicative relation is the immunest form of syntactic connection and in predicative connectives the structural restriction in comparison with attributive constructions is extremely limited. Adjectives as predicative words do not have denotation and reference, they have no denoter, there is a signification. Basing on their indicative characteristics, it is possible to present all the possible semantic features. For the English language it is characteristic the use of the attribute before the defined word. The development from a special sign of thought to a general concept is characteristic for the whole structure of the English language; it is even possible to observe it in word formation. In most cases, taking into account the use of the adjective in the function of an attribute, the terms like postpositional (post nominal) and prepositional (prenominal) adjectives are used. The reasons for the change in the position of adjectives should be sought not always in the nature of the adjective, but in the degree to which it determines its referent. The semes that make up the meaning of the word are at different levels and are more or less stable. In adjectives, the nuclear seme, or subseme, is always found next to the differential seme. In other words, the adjective cannot be combined with nouns in all semantic groups. When an adjective is combined with a noun, a background is formed that allows or prevents the actualization of a particular seme. This causes the activation of a specific seme associated with the semantics of the given name in combination with the given name. Such semes are reflected in the join semantics. The opposite can also be said. The adjective itself chooses the noun for word formation. After all, the same adjective behaves differently in relation to transformation into different attributive complexes. In our opinion, adjectives act as an important restrictive informative element at the content level.

Ролевые позиции читателя в когнитивной сцене «Встреча с литературным персонажем»

The present study results from integration of linguistic and sociological knowledge. Rich database obtained through the sociological survey acts as valuable data for further linguistic investigation. As the study object we took the utterances of respondents who participated in the second part of the sociological survey with university students as target group; the survey was carried out in three Russian regions — Moscow, Volgograd and Astrakhan. One of the questions in the questionnaire was “What literary character would you like to meet in person and why?” The respondents gave 869 detailed answers. Out of the total number the authors selected 224 responses regarding the figure of the desired partner in the imaginary meeting. The priority was given to the literary characters with the highest rates of popularity among the respondents. Cognitive scene “Meeting with a literary character” was modelled on the basis of propositions with focus on their permanent elements which are agent and patient of the situation and the predicate. Predicates performed the role of the semantic center in each utterance. Taking into account predicative relations within propositions, the authors identified main role positions the readers (interpreters) take in a cognitive scene. Those respondents who opt for passive observation fall into three groups — critics, viewers and listeners. The respondents who prefer interaction and even manipulation are seen as dialogue partners and co-workers in the event.

A Logical Reconstruction of Leibniz’s Argument for His Complete Concept Conception of the Nature of Substance in Discours §8

Abstract This paper develops a valid reconstruction in first-order predicate logic of Leibniz’s argument for his complete concept definition of substance in §8 of the Discours de Métaphysique. Following G. Rodriguez-Pereyra, it construes the argument as resting on two substantial premises, the “merely verbal” Aristotelian definition and Leibniz’s concept containment theory of truth, and it understands the resulting “real” definition as saying not that an entity is a substance iff its complete concept contains every predicate of that entity, but iff its complete concept contains every predicate of any subject to which that concept is truly attributable. An account is suggested of why Leibniz criticises the Aristotelian definition as merely nominal and how he takes his own definition to overcome this shortcoming: while on the Aristotelian basis the predication relation could generate endless chains, so that substances as endpoints of predication would be impossible, Leibniz’s definition reveals lowest species as such endpoints, which he therefore identifies with individual substances. Since duplicate lowest species make no sense, the Identity of Indiscernibles for substances follows. The reading suggests a Platonist interpretation according to which substances do not so much have but are individual essences, natures or forms.

Quantified Temporal Alethic Boulesic Doxastic Logic

The paper develops a set of quantified temporal alethic boulesic doxastic systems. Every system in this set consists of five parts: a ‘quantified’ part, a temporal part, a modal (alethic) part, a boulesic part and a doxastic part. There are no systems in the literature that combine all of these branches of logic. Hence, all systems in this paper are new. Every system is defined both semantically and proof-theoretically. The semantic apparatus consists of a kind of T times W models, and the proof-theoretical apparatus of semantic tableaux. The ‘quantified part’ of the systems includes relational predicates and the identity symbol. The quantifiers are, in effect, a kind of possibilist quantifiers that vary over every object in the domain. The tableaux rules are classical. The alethic part contains two types of modal operators for absolute and historical necessity and possibility. According to ‘boulesic logic’ (the logic of the will), ‘willing’ (‘consenting’, ‘rejecting’, ‘indifference’ and ‘non-indifference’) is a kind of modal operator. Doxastic logic is the logic of beliefs; it treats ‘believing’ (and ‘conceiving’) as a kind of modal operator. I will explore some possible relationships between these different parts, and investigate some principles that include more than one type of logical expression. I will show that every tableau system in the paper is sound and complete with respect to its semantics. Finally, I consider an example of a valid argument and an example of an invalid sentence. I show how one can use semantic tableaux to establish validity and invalidity and read off countermodels. These examples illustrate the philosophical usefulness of the systems that are introduced in this paper.

Digitization as politics: Smart farming through the lens of weak and strong data

This paper offers an alternative approach for engaging sociologically, ontologically, and politically with digital farming platforms. A challenge faced by any approach looking to upend intellectual conventions, especially ontological ones, lies in the question of representation, namely, how do we talk about digitization in novel theoretical ways using language rooted in more than two millennia of western human-centered thought? One way to deal with this challenge, the one adopted in this paper, involves decentering familiar terms and repurposing them. Thus, rather than organizing the argument around familiar terms like small and big data, I argue instead that we organize data-assemblages according to what they do, which makes this a political ontological project. To do this, I offer the relational predicate of weak data and strong data, suggesting that they are good to think with in this regard. The argument ultimately lands at a place for analyzing these platforms that offers the potential for critique and perhaps even a degree of optimism, as I suggest a framework for normatively evaluating these practices. The paper draws upon various empirical studies of digital agriculture conducted by the author, which include interviews with farmers, farm laborers, hacktivists, investors, and engineers from numerous countries and locales.

Context as an activator of connotations (on the material of Kurt Pinthus’ anthology “The Twilight of Humanity”)

The goal of this research consists in determination of the types of contexts in the lyric poetry of German expressionism that contribute to the emergence of connotations in the semantics of a word. The subject of this article is the extralinguistic and linguistic contexts. The work employs the methods of contextual, component and interpretative analysis. In chronological sequence, the article describes various theories of contextual analysis and summarizes their main provisions. The author differentiates two types of context in a literary work: extralinguistic and linguistic; the latter is divided into micro- and macro-contexts. The poems of anthology of expressionist lyrics of Kurt Pinthus “The Twilight of Humanity” served as the material for this research. The scientific novelty consists in determination of the five types of linguistic micro-context, as well as analysis of the results of their interaction with semantically implemented word based on the material of the lyric poetry of German expressionism. In the course of study, it was established that extralinguistic context includes the artistic worldview of German literary expressionism as a whole, and artistic concept of “vitalism” as one of its crucial structural elements in particular. A specific poem is a macro-context. The indicatory minimum for the semantically implemented work contains five mechanisms: grammar parallelism, subjective predicative relations, complement in the genitive case, complement in the accusative case with preposition, attributive. The emergence of connotations in the sense of semantically implemented work was viewed on the example of representatives of the artistic concept of “vitalism”, which in broadly understood as “activeness”. The acquired results can be used for comprising individual authorial glossaries, as well as handbooks on text stylistics and history of foreign literature.

Subpredicação e Small Clause na sintaxe mais simples: um caso de não-uniformidade na interface

Esta pesquisa analisa o fenômeno semântico da subpredicação a partir da Teoria da Sintaxe mais Simples (SMS) (CULICOVER; JACKENDOFF, 2005). Nessa abordagem, uma vez que a semântica é gerada paralelamente, é proposta a não-uniformidade de interface como opção de economia teórica: a estrutura sintática é reduzida, projetando somente os itens pronunciados. Analisamos sentenças com verbos que selecionam subpredicação e aplicamos testes de constituência para verificar em quais casos esses verbos licenciam um único constituinte sintático como complemento. Nos casos em que é atestada a formação de constituinte, a subpredicação é projetada sintaticamente como uma small clause (SC); nos demais, a relação de predicação ocorre diretamente com o verbo e não é formada uma SC – para esses verbos, a representação sintática é semelhante à projeção de verbos triargumentais. Os resultados mostraram que muitos verbos tradicionalmente considerados selecionadores de SC não o são, embora estabeleçam relação de subpredicação no nível semântico.

Mbyá resultatives and the structure of causation

In Mbyá, target state resultative predicates can only be derived from inchoative verbs. This is in contrast with target state adjectival passives in better studied languages such as English, German and Greek, which can be derived from transitive causatives. I argue that the limited distribution of Mbyá resultatives reveals a point of variation in the association between roots and external-argument introducing Voice heads: while roots of non-agentive transitive causatives need not be lexically associated to agent or causer Voice in English and similar languages, they do in Mbyá. Together with the well documented incompatibility of target state resultatives with agent/causer Voice, this difference explains the restricted distribution of Mbyá resultatives. The proposed analysis stresses the importance of the distinction between target states and resultant states in the structure of adjectival passives and related resultative predicates cross-linguistically.

The ambiguity of projection and the chomskyan adjunction as a formal way of approaching predication in small clauses and secondary predication

This paper focus on the syntax of the predication relations in predicative constructions like secondary predication and small clause constructions. The goals are (i) to consider that an adjunction structures à la Chomsky (1986) and May (1985) (opposing category vs . segment of category) is an interesting solution to the syntax of predication, whenever combined with the idea that merge can be symmetrical in terms of projection (if α and β are merged, either α or β can project – Chomsky, 1995); and (ii) to present a formal and unified approach to the grammar of different kinds of predication, based on Carreira (2015), emphasizing specially cases of small clauses and secondary predication. The paper presents new data from BP, which challenges the classical analyses, as in Williams (1980), Stowell (1983) and Rothstein (1983) and minimalist analysis as Den Dikken (2006). This research is framed in the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995) and other. As we will argue, by exploring this mechanism, we might be able to provide a unified account for different types of predication.

Appearance and Existence in Mandarin Chinese

AbstractIn Mandarin Chinese, the string of three overt elements in a row, a locative, a verb, and a nominal, asserts the existence of the entity denoted by the nominal in the location. This paper argues that the verb is contained in an adjunct, whereas the locative in its base position and the nominal establish a matrix predication relation. Thus, instead of the overt verb, the head of the matrix predicate of the construction is null. Moreover, a new analysis is provided to explain the obligatory argument sharing between the verb and the matrix predication of the construction. Furthermore, the paper argues that the agent of a transitive verb in certain types of embedded clauses needs to be Case-licensed by either the v of the selecting verb, as in an ECM construction, or a local c-commanding functional element, such as a complementizer, as in the English infinitiveforconstruction. This Case-licensing explains why the transitive verb in the string has no agent. The research shows that the syntactic strategies to license abstract Cases in Chinese are similar to the ones found in other languages. Finally, the paper argues that the post-verbal -zheis an adessive marker when it occurs in a non-progressive context.

Relative to What? - Interpretation with higher-place predicates

Abstract Ordinary language contains groups of related predicates with different arities. Interpreting utterances that appear to contain an n-place predicate by using an n+m-place predicate to dissolve merely apparent disagreements and other misunderstandings is an established practice in everyday discourse. This paper aims to present hermeneutical maxims to guide and evaluate these interpretations through arity raising. In interpreting utterances by using a higher-place predicate, we should use only expressions that their authors themselves reasonably could have used and which would have been suitable to achieve their supposed purposes. The goal is to achieve a charitable, accurate reading that also maximizes the text's transparency to improve our understanding of it.

Visualizing ideas-heard of C-map

Communication and interaction between teachers and students always plays a vital role in building a sound educational system where learning becomes an experience. Further enhancement of this learning and understanding of the subject can be supported and secured by a process of conceptual mapping. Conceptual mapping is a step-wise process which includes text filling, relational predicates (understanding) and finally constructing the map. It is a technical tool which is easily accessible and economical in its time use. The idea of using the concept map is still in the primitive level and more emphasis has to be made in this area to use it to its full potential in the academic field.

Frozen structure and concessive relations: a complex predication

This paper aims at analyzing the concessive relation, as a complex predication, under the scope of the freezing concept. After having defined the three terms of the analysis, we proceed to the description of the concessive relation, which includes several predicates at a time. This complexity is fixed in the language through grammaticalization, as a form of freezing, by means of grammatical expressions used to structure the organization of the predicative relations in the utterance, whether sentencial or multi-sentencial. This fixation in the language declines the same concessive relation with semantic nuances that testify to the richness of this complex predication.

WORKING WITH A LINGUISTIC CORPUS USING R: AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE WITH INDONESIAN NEGATING CONSTRUCTION

This paper demonstrates the use of R for a unified data science in corpus linguistics via a series of corpus-based analyses on Indonesian Negating Construction. The data is based on c17-million word-tokens of an online-news corpus, a part of the Indonesian Leipzig Corpora. We identified that tidak is the most frequent form in our corpus. Next, we found that tak has significantly higher type frequency for negated-predicates with [ter-X-kan] schema compared to tidak; this finding provides a quantitative nuance against a description in an Indonesian reference grammar, stating that (i) in present-day Indonesian tidak is also common to negate ter- related predicates, while (ii) the compulsoriness of tak to negate ter- predicates is a past usage. Lastly, we refine our second finding by applying Distinctive Collexeme Analysis to determine that tak strongly attracts specific verbs predominantly in the [ter-X-kan] schema compared to tidak; this finding offers a deeper characterisation for tidak and tak.

Small clauses in English and Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian / Male klauze u engleskom i bosanskom, hrvatskom i srpskom jeziku

Small Clauses in English represent one of the basic concepts of modern generative grammar and they are characterized as minimal units of non-verbal predication, where the predication relation between the subject and the predicate is established in the absence of a finite verb form. In traditional grammars, they are generally referred to as “secondary predication” constructions. As the concept of a “small clause” is not familiar in the context of traditional descriptive grammars of Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian, the aim of this paper is to make a preliminary contrastive analysis of how these or similar constructions are realized in Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian through translation equivalents and how they are treated in traditional grammars. Additionally, we have applied several tests typically used in English literature to prove the constituency of small clauses in order to establish whether or not these constructions could form a separate constituent at the sentence level in Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian as well.