Dependent nexus : subordinate predication structures in English and the Scandinavian languages

....................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Nexus and Dependency............................................................ 1 1. Subject and Predicate .................................................................... 1 1.1. Previous work on predication .......................................... 1 1.1.1. Two views on predication .................................. . 2 1.1.1.1. Aristotle................................................ 2 1.1.1.2. Frege ...................................................... 3 1.1.2. Jespersen ............................................................ 4 1.1.3. The Government and Binding framework ..........9 1.1.3.1. Chomsky ................................................ 9 1.1.3.2. Stowell .................................................. 13 1.1.4. Syntactic theories of Predication ........................ 17 1.1.4.1. Williams................................................ 18 1.1.4.2. Rothstein 1983 ...................................... 19 1.1.4.3. Heycock 1991 ........................................ 21 1.1.5. A head in the small clause .................................. 26 1.1.5.1. Property Theory .................................... 26 1.1.5.2. Bowers 1993 .......................................... 27 1.1.6. Summary of §1.1 ................................................ 28 1.2. A distillation.................................................................... 28 1.2.1. Constituency ...................................................... . 28 1.2.2. The head .............................................................. 29 1.2.3. The nature of the head ........................................ 30 1.2.4. Summary of §1 .................................................... 31 2. Head and Complement .................................................................. 33 2.1. Subcategorization and Selection ...................................... 33 2.1.1. History................................................................ 33 2.1.2. Determination of features on complements ........35 2.1.3. F-selection and head movement .......................... 41 2.2. Head Chains .................................................................... 45 2.3. Summary of §2 ................................................................ 53 3. Dependency .................................................................................. . 54 3.1. The failure of constituents to pass constituency tests ......54 3.2. The significance of subjecthood ...................................... 58 3.3. The Functor Anaphora Constraint .................................... 63 3.4. Some specific cases of Dependency ................................ 65 3.4.1. The dependency of VP ........................................ 67 3.4.2. The dependency of IP ........................................ 72 3.5. Summary of §3 ................................................................ 83 4. Conclusion.................................................................................... 85 iv Chapter 2: Propositions and States of Affairs 0. Introduction.................................................................................. . 86 1. Data to be accounted for .............................................................. . 87 1.1. Infinitival complements .................................................. 88 1.2. Small clause complements .............................................. 89 1.2.1. Constituency tests .............................................. 92 1.2.2. Quantifier scope .................................................. 93 1.2.3. Null operator traces ............................................ 94 1.3. Summary of contrasts ...................................................... 95 2. Previous accounts .......................................................................... 96 2.1. The GB account .............................................................. . 96 2.2. Stowell’s small clause restructuring ................................ 98 2.3. Object raising .................................................................. 102 3. The analysis .................................................................................. . 108 3.1. States of affairs and propositions .................................... 111 3.1.1. The Situation Semantics SoA ............................ 112 3.1.2. The SC complement of want as a SoA.............. . 114 3.1.3. The IP complement of want as a SoA................116 3.2. Stage-level and Individual-level predicates ....................118 3.3. SoAs with different predicators ...................................... 127 3.4. Propositions from different predicators .......................... 131 4. The application of the analysis to the data .................................... 136 4.1. The distribution of for and PRO ...................................... 136 4.2. Reflexives........................................................................ 139 4.3. Passive .............................................................................. 141 4.4. Displacement .................................................................... 143 4.5. Narrow scope .................................................................. 144 4.6. Null operators.................................................................. 145 5. Perception verbs ............................................................................ 148 5.1. The interpretation of the complement of see ..................150 5.2. Simultaneity.................................................................... 157 5.3. Stativity............................................................................ 158 6. Conclusion.................................................................................... 160