Date: 15-Aug-2005 From: Jasper de Vaal <jasper.devaalspringer-sbm.com> Subject: Predicates and Their Subjects: Rothstein
Title: Predicates and Their Subjects
Series Title: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy 74
Published: 2004
Publisher: Springer
http://www.springeronline.com
Author: Susan Rothstein, Bar-Ilan University
Paperback: ISBN: 1402020589 Pages: 372 Price: Europe EURO 35.00
Paperback: ISBN: 1402020589 Pages: 372 Price: U.S. $ 39.00
Paperback: ISBN: 1402020589 Pages: 372 Price: U.K. £ 24.00
Abstract:
Predicates and their Subjects is an in-depth study of the syntax-semantics interface focusing on the structure of the subject-predicate relation. Starting from where the author's 1983 dissertation left off, the book argues that there is syntactic constraint that clauses (small and tensed) are constructed out of a one-place unsaturated expression, the predicate, which must be applied to a syntactic argument, its subject. The author shows that this predication relation cannot be reduced to a thematic relation or a projection of argument structure, but must be a purely syntactic constraint. Chapters in the book show how the syntactic predication relation is semantically interpreted, and how the predication relation explains constraints on DP-raising and on the distribution of pleonastics in English. The second half of the book extends the theory of predication to cover copular constructions; it includes an account of the structure of small clauses in Hebrew, of the use of 'be' in predicative and identity sentences in English, and concludes with a study of the meaning of the verb 'be'.
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