Secondary predicates

Chapter 21 deals with secondary predicates (also called ‘praedicativa’), with quantifiers, and with the pronouns ipse and idem. The function of secondary predicate can be fulfilled by various categories of nominal expressions, such as adjectives, nouns, and participles which agree with the constituent to which they belong in case, number, and/or gender, but also by noun phrases in multiple case forms and prepositional phrases. The semantic relationship between the secondary predicate and the constituent it belongs to is usually implicit. A clause can contain more than one secondary predicate.

The Oxford Latin Syntax

Volume II of the Oxford Latin Syntax deals with the syntax and pragmatics of complex sentences in Latin and other topics that transcend the simple clause (which is the content of Volume I). The volume starts with a chapter on subordination in general, followed by chapters on subordinate clauses that function as argument or as satellite in their sentence. Separate chapters are devoted to subordinate clauses governed by nouns and adjectives and to relative clauses. In addition there are chapters on coordination, comparison, secondary predicates, information structure of clauses and sentences including the use of emphatic particles, word order, and various discourse phenomena such as sentence connection. As in Volume I, the description of the Latin material is based upon texts from roughly 200 BC to AD 450. The Latin texts that are discussed are provided with an English translation. Supplements contain further examples to illustrate the main text. The grammatical framework used is mainly that of Functional Grammar but the description is accessible for readers without a modern linguistic background.

Rethinking Depictive Secondary Predicates A Pair- Merge approach and the Adjunct Condition

In this article I will propose a new analysis of depictive secondary predication structures. Previous studies of these structures are framed within different approaches: C-command / categorial approaches (Williams 1980, Rothstein 1983, 2001, Demonte 1988, Mallén 1991, Bowers 1993, among others), C-command and Multiple Agree approaches (McNulty 1988, Irimia 2012), linearization after ‘Lateral Movement’ and attachment of identical eventive heads (Gallar 2017), or Parallel-Merge approaches (Irimia 2012, You 2016). Following Chomsky (2019) and Bošković (2020), among others, I will claim here, first, that adjunct depictive secondary predicates start as members of a Pair-MERGE(d) conjunction/ adjunction structure which is unlabeled. There are as many members of these pair merged phrases as modifiers in a sentence, and they are unbounded and unstructured. Pair merged structures are in principle opaque and non-sensible to syntactic operations. However, since they are semantically and syntactically conjoined phrases they have each a Link element. This Link merges at the edge of the phase at which the modifier is conjoined thus allowing extraction out of the opaque domain. I will suggest that perhaps Tagalog expresses overtly these links. I will previously present a detailed description of the properties of DPS in Spanish

Depictive secondary predicates in Turkish

This paper provides an overview of depictive secondary predicates within the Turkish language, particularly surrounding the small clause phenomenon. These constructions function as adjuncts in the matrix clause. However, it may be difficult to distinguish between depictives and adverbial adjuncts in Turkish because of their morphosyntactic shape. Primarily, I will address the distinction between depictives and adverbial adjuncts based on studies founded by Schultze-Berndt & Himmelmann (2004) and Himmelmann & Schultze-Berndt (2006) based on a description of the depictive secondary predicates in Turkish. Furthermore, I will specifically focus on the adjectivals as a depictive secondary predicate. These establish a predicative relationship with their controllers, which are the subject or object of the main clause. In this context, I will also analyze this predicative relationship at a semantical, syntactical and morphosyntactical level. I will then analyze the difficulties faced when referring to these structures as constituents in an analysis of the complex sentence as a whole.

Subordination and embedding

As an introduction to subordination the various functions of the particle ki are presented. The central question is how sentences are used as subject, object, and predicate. First, predicates and subjects are discussed, followed by a thorough treatment of direct and indirect speech. This includes certain colloquialisms based on the optative. After this intermezzo the discussion is resumed for direct objects based on both infinitival as well as on finite forms. The choice between these depends on the semantics of the verb involved. Next, the relation between secondary predicates (small clauses) and raising phenomena is explained, which all form peculiar types of embedding. Furthermore, it is shown that there are seven verbal classes, each of which takes either one, two, or three types of complement, accordingly being expressed by one propositional or two predicational types of complementation. The final sections deal with passive and postpositional embeddings.

Verb phrase secondary predication: Biblical Hebrew as a case study

In this article, I discuss secondary predication in Biblical Hebrew, showing that contrary to what linguists such as Rothstein (2004. Structuring events. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell) suggest, there are languages with verb phrases as secondary predicates.In particular, I deal with a construction in Biblical Hebrew I refer to as the double infinitive-absolute construction, where in addition to a finite verb, the sentence contains two conjoined occurrences of an infinitive absolute, where the first is of the same root and binyan (pattern) as the finite verb but deprived of temporal and agreement features, while the second is of a different root and (maybe) binyan. I show that Biblical Hebrew uses this construction to form a new complex verb with the primary predicate, such that it shares the subject or the object with the primary predicate, depicting a situation that overlaps in time with the situation depicted by the primary predicate or results from it.

Zande

The morphology of Zande (Ubangi) has been known since the earliest descriptions of the 1920s by Gore and Lagae. This chapter focuses on recently discovered syntactic features. The first are the functions of three copulas, the functions of the two series of personal pronouns in possessive constructions, and the functions of secondary predicates. There are also intransitive copy pronouns which mark substantivized adjectives, floating quantifiers and numerals which follow the entire noun phrase, and the functions of the preposition be ‘from, because of’ which is derived from the denotation for ‘hand’. The verb ya ‘say’ has undergone multiple grammaticalizations and functions as a complementizer, and in serial verb constructions it marks immediate anteriority or ineffective attempt.