Approaches To Complex Predicates

Complex predicates can be loosely defined as a sequence of items that behave as a single predicate, projecting a single argument structure within a clause. Each of the members of the predicate contributes part of the information ordinarily associated with a single head. The present volume presents a collection of theoretical linguistic results on the study of complex predicates in different perspectives and with a variety of approaches.

A variety of approaches to the question of the range and nature of complex predicates.

Covers research in complex predicates within a variety of languages, such as German, Dutch, Italian, French, Korean and Urdu. This work focuses on diverse aspects of complex predicate phenomena, including order variation, constituency relations, interactions with other construction types, argument relations, and the syntax morphology interface.

Complex Predicates examines a number of linguistic phenomena—including auxiliary and verb combinations, causative constructions, predicatives, depictive secondary predicates, and particle and verb combinations—and uses scrambling and fronting data to determine that all except the depictive secondary predicates should be treated as complex predicates. Müller's analysis of inflection and derivation is compatible with syntactical analysis of particle verbs; as a byproduct, it also solves the particle verb bracketing paradox often discussed in the literature.

This book takes a detailed look at two differing complex predicates in the South Asian language Urdu. The Urdu permissive in particular brings into focus the problem of the syntax-semantics mismatch. An examination of the syntactic properties of this complex predicate shows that it is formed by the combination of two semantic heads, but that this combination is not mirrored in the syntax in terms of any kind of syntactic or lexical incorporation.

Originally published in 1994, this volume analyses complex predicate constructions in Japanese in the framework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). The book presents the theoretical framework as a basis of the following analyses and discusses thematic roles, reflexive binding and case marking. Attention is also given to passive, benefactive and causative constructions.

This volume brings together ten papers presented at the 10th International Conference on the Structure of Hungarian (Lund, 2011). The papers cover a broad field of issues in Hungarian relating to phonetics, phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics, such as vowel harmony, particle verb constructions, impersonal use of personal pronouns, the diachronic development of comparative subclauses, pseudoclefts and wh-interrogatives. While the majority of the papers focus on Hungarian, four articles discuss questions relating to other languages. One article compares clausal coordinate ellipsis in Hungarian, Estonian, Dutch and German, another addresses the question how the information structural notions discourse new, Focus and Given relate to each other. Two articles focus on Finnish, discussing DP-extraction and participal constructions, respectively. The broad range of phenomena covered in this volume makes it relevant not just to scholars working on Hungarian, but to a general audience of generative linguists.