An empirical-theoretical analysis of secondary predication

Authors

  • Marcos Barbosa Carreira
  • Andrea Knöpfle

Keywords:

secondary predicate, small clauses, adjectives, structural ambiguity.

Abstract

This work compares the behavior of object oriented secondary predication constructions within Brazilian Portuguese and German, exemplified by the sentence João comeu a carne crua (João ate the meat raw x João ate the raw meat). As the English translation shows, this kind of data has a structural ambiguity regarding the attributive and predicative role of the adjective. We show that this ambiguity is not verified in German, a fact that might be relevant to a proper structural description (SD). Revising some standard analysis (STOWELL, 1983; ROTHSTEIN, 1995), we notice that they lead to a constituency paradox, already pointed out in Carreira (2008). We therefore propose a syntactic analysis based on Den Dikken’s (2006) theory of predication, which might circumvent the alleged paradox.

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Published

2016-04-04

How to Cite

Carreira, M. B., & Knöpfle, A. (2016). An empirical-theoretical analysis of secondary predication. Estudos Linguísticos (São Paulo. 1978), 42(1), 182–194. Retrieved from https://revistas.gel.org.br/estudos-linguisticos/article/view/1096

Issue

Section

Gramática Gerativa