The Raising of Predicates: Predicative Noun Phrases and the Theory of Clause Structure

by Andrea Moro

Overview

One of the basic premises of the theory of syntax is that clause structures can be minimally identified as containing a verb phrase, playing the role of predicate, and a noun phrase, playing the role of subject. In this study Andrea Moro identifies a new category of copular sentences, namely inverse copular sentences, where the predicative noun phrase occupies the position that is canonically reserved for subjects. In the process, he sheds new light on such classical issues as the distribution and nature of expletives, locality theory and cliticization phenomena.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521024785
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/16/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Linguistics , #80
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Andrea Moro is Full Professor of General Linguistics at University San Raffaele in Milan and Head of the Interfaculty Graduate Program in Cognitive Neuroscience. His publications include The raising of Predicates (1997), published by Cambridge University Press, and Dynamic Antisymmetry (2000).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction: four apparently unrelated empirical domains; 1. The anomaly of copular sentences: the raising of predicates; 2. The syntax of ci; 3. Are there parameters in semantics? The defining properties of existential sentences; 4. The 'quasi-copula': on the role of finite clauses in seem-sentences; 5. A view beyond: unaccusativity as an epiphenomenon; Appendix; Notes; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'… an illuminating theory of predicate nominal and other copular constructions.' Noam Chomsky

From the Publisher