Secondary Predication Research Articles

Secondary predicates and motion events: the rise of complex predicates in Vedic Sanskrit

Secondary predicates and motion events: the rise of complex predicates in Vedic Sanskrit

Clausal agreement on adverbs in Andi

Abstract Andi (Nakh-Daghestanian; Russia) displays a typologically remarkable phenomenon: adverbs of numerous morphological and functional types inflect for agreement with a clause-level controller. To the extent that adverb agreement has been observed elsewhere, it is commonly taken to signal that the items involved are semantically oriented towards the participants they agree with, aligning the phenomenon with secondary predication. This paper demonstrates that Andi works differently: the widespread clausal agreement seen on Andi adverbs is insensitive to participant orientation. While agreement exponence on adverbs is morphologically complex, a simple structural principle (modelled here in Minimalist terms) ensures that clause-level agreement is always with the absolutive-case argument. The Andi facts thus provide evidence for a typological distinction between those languages where clausal agreement on adverbs can serve a semantic function and those where it cannot. A potential challenge is posed by the exceptional “biabsolutive” construction, where both subject and object appear in absolutive case and either may control adverb agreement, suggesting a role for some additional non-structural factor. However, on independent grounds this paper identifies the two arguments as belonging to distinct structural layers; this apparent flexibility in controller choice merely reflects the ability of certain adverbs to modify either layer.

Secondary predication in Irish and the syntax-prosody interface

Cross-linguistically, secondary predicates may be distinguished from event-modifiers (e.g. adverbs or converbs) and individual-modifiers (e.g. attributive adjectives, participles, or prepositional phrases) via the presence or absence of prosodic processes and phonetic cues. This paper examines the prosodic behavior of secondary predicates in Modern Irish, which can form bare adjectival depictive and resultative secondary predicates. We show that Mod. Irish bare AP secondary predicates are distinguished from surface distributionally equivalent attributive modifiers through the morphophonological system of initial mutation and cues such as phrase-final lengthening and pauses. These facts support an analysis of secondary predicates as extraposition structures that project to a φ-max/ι-boundary, mapping to complex syntactico-semantic representations. Evidence from Italian consonant gemination (raddoppiamento sintattico) and Georgian boundary tones are likewise discussed under the proposed analysis.

Como-gerund clauses in European Portuguese

Previous literature on the typology of gerund clauses in Portuguese has overlooked a peculiar type of clauses which are always introduced by como (‘as’) and display an array of characteristics that set them apart from all other gerund clauses (and from other, somehow similar, constructions in different languages). In this paper, we provide an in-depth syntactic and semantic characterisation of these como-gerund clauses and the contexts in which they arise, highlighting their similarities and differences regarding other constructions, namely resultative and depictive secondary predicates. We put forward a proposal to deal with their syntactic configurations and the restrictions they exhibit. We also propose that como is obligatory in these clauses because it marks a type-shift operation, which gives como gerund clauses a predicative interpretation, usually found in the nominal domain.

Pseudorelative clauses, infinitives, and gerunds with Spanish perception verbs: A comparative view

AbstractIn this paper, we provide a comparative analysis of three constructions that occur with perception verbs like ver (“see”) in Spanish: infinitives, gerunds, and so‐called pseudorelative clauses. We analyze several phenomena regarding the transparency status of the embedded inflected or uninflected clause, such as the availability of long (i.e., matrix) passive, short (i.e., embedded) passive, the occurrence of modal verbs, embedded negation, and left‐peripheral fronting. Our data from acceptability judgment tasks and a Spanish corpus led us to postulate that, albeit their surface similarities, the three examined constructions have different syntactic structures, reflected by their structural integration and the phasal versus nonphasal status of the embedded clause: We argue that gerunds are secondary predicates, while pseudorelatives and infinitives are complements of the perception verb. With respect to the latter two configurations, pseudorelatives are defective CPs (and thus weak phases) that allow (finite) raising‐to‐object, but not raising‐to‐subject. Infinitives, on the other hand, show interspeaker variation with respect to their structural size as voiceP or TP, accounting for variable acceptability judgments.

Alternation in Some Encodings of Secondary Predicates in Latin: Overview and a Sample Proposal on an Issue under Discussion

This paper offers a comprehensive and critical review of the most significant studies on the possible alternation between two specific encodings that can express, in a generic sense, the Manner in which a verbal process is developed: adverbial expressions (ADV) and Secondary Predicates (SP). The main types of SP/ADV to be addressed here are those which are Subject and/or event oriented. Both general and typological works will be taken into account, as well as others more focused on the Latin language; the central criterion of the study will essentially be to distinguish and analyse approaches which are more or less favourable to seeing the two types of constituents as equivalent. A section devoted to the work of one of the Latinists who has contributed most specifically and notably to the issue under discussion (H. Pinkster) will also be included. Following a critical review of the criteria which have the greatest explanatory potential for explaining the issue, some analytical approaches will be proposed which are as objective as possible for a subsequent corpus study; these criteria include parameters pertaining to different linguistic levels: syntax, lexical-semantics, pragmatics, etc.: their application — here only tentatively discussed — will provide clear and measurable results on the problem and on those questions arising from the critical review itself.

Circumstantial secondary predicates marked by the dative case

Tema rada su sekundarni predikati obilježeni dativom. Svrha rada je pokazati da su konstrukcije sa sekundarnim predikatima u dativu relevantne za raspravu o kriterijima podjele između deskriptiva ili deskriptivnih sekundarnih predikata i restriktora, odnosno sekundarnih predikata s okolnosnim značenjima kao što su uzročnost, uvjetnost i dopusnost. Pokazuje se da se sekundarni predikati u dativu tipično rabe kao restriktori. U rečenici se ostvaruju kao parenteze s odjelitim propozicijskim sadržajem. Tipično sejavljaju na preverbalnom položaju i gotovo se isključivo ostvaruju s pridjevima fizioloških, psihofizioloških i mentalnih stanja nad kojima referenti nemaju kontrolu ili ju gube. Oslanjanjem na korpusnu analizu i opis semantičkih okvira preispituje se gledište da su sekundarni predikati u dativu čimbenici u uzročno-posljedičnim obrascima, tipično čimbenici racionalizacije načina na koje referenti postupaju ili načina na koje doživljavaju stvari u situacijama nad kojima nemaju ili gube kontrolu. Dolazi se do zaključka da se ostvarenje restriktivne funkcije sekundarnih predikata u dativu može predvidjeti prema semantičkoj ulozi referenata o kojima se prediciraju. Restriktivna funkcija u pravilu će se uvijek ostvariti kada referent ima ulogu doživljavača.

Appunti per una teoria unificata dell'ausiliarizzazione

This article aims at discussing the premises for a unified account of auxiliarisation, here understood as aspecific subcase of grammaticalisation. The passage of Latin HABEO from a lexical verb to a tense-formingauxiliary is certainly one of the most well-studied innovations of Romance languages. Equally familiar are thecases of auxiliarisation of Latin TENEO, Germanic *habhen and *getan, as well as Scandinavian derivativesof Old Norse fà. Such processes follow a similar path, in the sense that they originally select a secondarypredication in the passive voice, which over time is reanalysed as active. At the same time, the governing verbis void of lexical content and turns into an auxiliary, while the implicit agent of the secondary predicate isreinterpreted as the surface subject of the construction. If a unified theory is to be attempted, such an approachshould capture why such a path of change is consistently observed and, moreover, why it seems to be a definingproperty of such auxiliarisation that the verbs involved originally describe possession, reception, or control.Furthermore, ideally the unified theory should account for why the semantic output of these processes variesover time: the earliest cases of auxiliarisation are precisely those involving HABEO/habhen, which give riseto the compound tenses in modern languages. Subsequent cases, however, such as the auxiliarisation ofTENEO/getan etc. do not lead to the formation of compound tenses, but rather to what could be defined ascompound aspects or, sometimes, compound causative constructions. This circumstance, too, requires aprincipled account.

Secondary depictive and resultative predication in and Chukchi's designative case

This study re-approaches the morphosyntax of the Chukchi designative case, a minor predicative case whose central function is the encoding of secondary depictive and resultative predicates. Although the designative case has been covered in Chukchi grammaticography (Bogoras 1922; Skorik 1961, 1977; Dunn 1999; Kämpfe & Volodin 1995), these accounts offer diverging and partly contradicting accounts concerning its compatibility with certain nominal parts of speech; of central relevance is the account of Inenlikej (1974) who went as far and denied the existence of a designative case altogether. A dedicated study of the syntax and semantics of the designative case has however, so far, not been attempted. Based on a manually glossed corpus of almost 13000 orthographic Chukchi words and additional electronically searchable Chukchi materials, this study covers the designative case from the perspective of participant-oriented adjuncts (Himmelmann & Schultze-Berndt 2005) and a recent questionnaire on secondary predication in Uralic Languages (Groot 2017). Since a number of Northern Eurasian languages have cases with a similar function e.g, Yukaghiric, Eskimo, several Uralic languages as well as Chukchi’s genetic relatives Koryak, Alutor and Itelmen, some cross-linguistic comparisons finalize this study.
 
 Keywords: Chukchi, designative case, depictive secondary predication, resultative secondary predication, participant-oriented adjuncts, Chukotko-Kamchadal languages, Yukaghir languages, Siberian Yupik Eskimo, Uralic languages

Worse Than a Curse: The Meaning and Syntax of ḥērem in Malachi 3:24 [4:6

In the history of the interpretation of Malachi, the word ḥērem which closes the book has been analysed in four different ways by translators and commentators, namely as a second object, an adverbial of means, an adverbial intensive, and a resultative secondary predicate. This article examines the four options and proposes the resultative analysis, hitherto only unambiguously attested in the Peshitta OT, as the best interpretation. This leads to the conclusion that ḥērem is something which the land becomes as a result of God’s action against it. I support the resultative analysis with data from Biblical Hebrew and maintain that this analysis best fits the consensus on the meaning of the word ḥērem, proposing a minimal understanding of the word in Malachi 3:24 [4:6] as “something unusable because it is under divine sanction.” Under this interpretation, the threat made by God in Malachi 3:24 is both more specific and more serious than what is communicated by most translations. In its final verse, Malachi issues an ultimatum against the people which throws into question the ongoing role of the land in the divine plan. For the final portion of the verse, I propose the translation “lest I come and strike the land, leaving it profaned.”

The Syntax of Secondary Predicates in Standard Arabic: A Minimalist Approach

This paper examines the structure of the secondary predicates in Standard Arabic using the Minimalist Program. The main aim of the paper is to make generalizations about the structure as well as to find a uniform analysis of this structure. Among the most important results reached are as follows: The secondary predicates have a unified structure that is derived from small clauses that form a phase. In addition, despite having one unified structure, these predicates have distinct positions. Moreover, secondary predicates also possess shared arguments (with main predicates) and secondary predicates differ depending on the types of shared argument it modifies. We also find that the apparent ‘accusative’ Case shown on the secondary predicates has nothing to do with verbs. In fact, the Case hosted on secondary predicates is an abstract Case, which is derived through the genitive Case parameter. Finally, the control structure provided by some predicates is derived by copying and merging the shared argument from the specifier of the small clause to a higher position in the sentence structure, noting that the empty element PRO does not exist within the proposed analysis.

FUNCTIONAL PARADIGM OF NON-FINITE CLAUSES WITH A NON-FINITE WHICH IS PART OF A PREDICATIVE CONSTRUCTION (ON THE MATERIAL OF ENGLISH ONLINE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES)

The article homes in on establishing the functional paradigm of non-finite clauses in Modern English. The data for the research has been drawn from English online newspaper articles the Evening Standard, the Guardian, the Times. The research corpus comprises 254 non-finite clauses per 976 thousand words from the texts under analysis. The novelty of this investigation lies in the fact that it views non-finite clauses in the functional aspect with a non-finite as part of a predicative construction. Non-finite clauses are a concise means of expressing thoughts and being such they can make the idea get manifested in a shorter but more attractive way. The use of non-finites demands a more sophisticated kowledge of language and more cognitive effort for perception and interpretation. This last statement may explain the reason why newspaper register abounds in non-finites while informal English does not. As the result of the analysis there have been established the functions performed by (a) the infinitive clauses with the infinitive as a secondary predicate in the subjective predicative construction, the objective predicative construction, the for-to-infinitive construction and the absolute with the infinitive construction; (b) the ing-clauses with the present / perfect participle and the gerund as a secondary predicate of the objective / subjective / prepositional absolute with the participle construction and of the gerundial predicative construction correspondingly; (c) the ed-clauses with the past participle as a secondary predicate of the objective / subjective / prepositional absolute with the participle construction.

Personal-evaluation secondary predicates in Japanese and quirky experiencer raising

Personal-evaluation secondary predicates in Japanese and quirky experiencer raising

Nominal attribution and predication in Eastern Tarifiyt Berber and its Moroccan Arabic influence

In this paper I have looked at nominal predication and attribution of property concepts in Eastern Tarifiyt Berber. I have looked at both syntax and semantics. New in this paper is an analysis of secondary predication and the comparison with Eastern Moroccan Arabic (see Maas, 2008).

ON THE TYPES OF RESULTS STRUCTURES EXPRESSED BY A SECONDARY PREDICAT

The article is devoted to the study of the result structure represented by secondary predicates. It is studied that the events expressed in the main predicate are analyzed from the point of view of meaning by highlighting them in the secondary predicate, and the secondary predicates mean the result and descriptive meanings. Effectiveness, in turn, is also associated with the static nature of the verb, where the static predicate forms an effective structure. The descriptive meaning expressed as part of a sentence is usually formed in certain semantic groups of a verb denoting a state, a change in state, an action. It is also noted that the descriptive expression is reflected in the description of the physical and psychological state of a person, expressed by the participle of a noun.

Experimental evidence of the production of inflected infinitives by Brazilian Portuguese speakers

The Minimalist Program launched by N. Chomsky (1995) inspired reductionist accounts of Control phenomena, which tried to eliminate ‘PRO’ from the theory of grammar, treating it as a trace (copy) of movement (Martin 1996; O’Neil 1997; Hornstein 1999 et seq.). Such movement theories of Control are directly challenged by the use of inflected infinitives in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), as shown in Modesto (2010). Many supporters of the movement theory, however, have denied the empirical argument, making the claim that inflected infinitives “are not natural in BP” (Rodrigues & Hornstein 2013: 307), not belonging to BP’s “core grammar”. This study, then, presents two experiments in which production of nonfinite inflection is implicitly elicited in a pseudoword oral completion task. Participants from different linguistic geographic varieties (the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo) heard the pseudoverb in its gerundive form and were then prompted to insert the pseudoverb in a sentence frame that would be compatible with both uninflected and inflected infinitive forms. Our results show 73.3% of participants inflected the infinitive to some degree when indirectly primed to do so, and that 40.9% did so, even when not primed. Results also show that while linearly distant plural markings (on the subject) did not influence behavior, adjacent morphosyntactic plural markings (on secondary predicates, for instance) did slightly increase the probability of inflection. Both priming effects and sensitivity to morphosyntactic context seem to indicate that nonfinite inflection is a productive, albeit variable, feature of BP speakers’ I-grammar.

ADJECTIVE HALFPREDICATIVE CONSTRUCTION IN THE FOCUS OF LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC SEMANTICS

The article clarifies the terminological meaning of the concepts “predicativeness”, “half-predicativeness”, “halfpredicative construction”, “halfpredicative syntactic connection”, “halfpredicative semantic-syntactic relations”, “secondary predication”. The definition of these syntactic terms remains an actual problem of theoretical grammar today. The author states that all grammatical categories are in a simple complex sentence. Its main feature is asymmetry, because in terms of structure simple complex sentences belong to the class of monopredicative units, and in terms of semantics ‒ to non-elementary ones. The article also summarizes different types of complicating components. The central place among them is occupied by separated secondary members of the sentence (according to the traditional classification) or semi-predicative constructions (according to the latest classification). The main component of semipredicative constructions are adjectives, adverbs, and nouns. It has been investigated that the concept of “halfpredicativeness” and “halfpredicative construction” is closely related to the morphological nature of individual words, their semantics and the possibilities of establishing syntactic connections in a sentence. In particular, the meaning of an adjective is formed not by the concept of objects of reality, but by the concept of qualities, relations, belonging. In addition, the adjective most often enters the syntactic structure of the sentence not independently, but as part of a substantive group of different semantics. In lexical-grammatical unity, the adjective not only clarifies the semantics of the main noun, but also specifies its meaning in the attributive and predicative positions. It is proved that abstract nouns in the basic structure of the sentence, although devoid of denotation, can simultaneously form the semantics of the statement. Under this condition, they become the signifier for the adjectival halfpredicative construction.

EXPLORING ADJECTIVAL FREE ADJUNCTS: A CROSS-LINGUISTIC STUDY OF ENGLISH AND SERBIAN

The paper examines adjectival free adjuncts in English and Serbian using a double and bidirec- tional corpus consisting of novels and their translations in both languages. The objectives of this study are to describe the formal and semantic characteristics of adjectival free adjuncts and to compare these constructions in the two languages based on their translational equivalents. The analysis of adjectival free adjuncts in English and Serbian demonstrates that they can be considered formally and semantically equivalent constructions, as evidenced by nearly 85% of cases showing absolute alignment in translation. In the remaining cases, adjuncts are conveyed through other phrases and clauses. In the translation from English to Serbian, translators resort to non-finite and relative clauses when the adjective is accompanied by a longer complement in English. On the other hand, when rendered into Serbian, adjuncts may change position or be translated as full adverbial clauses with an explicit conjunction to avoid ambiguity. In a number of instances, the comma is omitted in translation, indicating the close relation between adjectival free adjuncts and depictive secondary predicates.

Depictive Secondary Predicates with Predicate Instrumental in Croatian

Rad problematizira među slavistima (v. Bailyn 2002; Richardson 2006; Markman 2008) raširenu pretpostavku da se u hrvatskome jeziku ne pojavljuju nesročni deskriptivni sekundarni predikati obilježeni instrumentalom. Na temelju konstrukcija X PRONALAZI Y U STANJU Z i X TRAJE U STANJU Y demonstrira se da deskriptivi u instrumentalu – iako relativno rijetki – nisu slučajna ili iznimna pojava u hrvatskome jeziku, već pojava čija se uporaba u određenoj mjeri može predvidjeti. Oslanjajući se na korpusnu analizu glagolskih i pridjevskih klasa u dvjema ciljanim konstrukcijama te slijedeći model konstrukcijske gramatike u radu se opisuju morfosintaktička i semantička obilježja koja motiviraju uporabu deskriptivnog instrumentala.

On the Special Function of Adverbs in the Structure of an Utterance (the Role of the Secondary Predicate)

The object of the article is the processes of inner speech (in the understanding of L.S. Vygotsky), during which the future utterance is formed. One such process is syntactic structure compression. In particular, of interest are polypropositive utterances in which adverbs play the role of a secondary predicate. Examples from Russian fiction are analyzed (from I. Shmelev to A. Bitov), in which a complicated meaning is hidden behind the syntactic structure of a simple sentence. It is concluded that adverbs with the meaning of physiological or mental sensations, moral assessment, compliance with a cultural norm, etc. are most inclined to the function of a secondary predicate. However, the different word-formation background of such adverb leads to its ambivalence and, in accordance with this, to different interpretations of the proposition behind it. In general, the ability to “pack” a whole proposition into one word makes the adverb a full-fledged participant in the processes of speech activity.