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In traditional grammar, a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence (the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies). English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. English grammar is a body of rules ( Grammar) specifying how phrases and sentences are constructed in the English language. In Traditional grammar, a contraction is the formation of a new Word from one or more individual words Disputed English grammar denotes disagreement about whether given constructions constitute correct English. A compound is a word composed of more than one Free morpheme. In the English language an English Honorific is something that is attached to but not usually part of a name e The personal pronouns of English can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case. In the English Language, Nouns are inflected for Grammatical number —that is singular or Plural. This article is focused mainly on usage of English relative clauses Principal parts A regular English verb has only one principal part, the infinitive or dictionary form (which is identical to the simple present tense for all persons and This is a paradigm of English verbs that is a set of conjugation tables for the model regular verbs and for some of the most common irregular verbs The English language has a large number of Irregular verbs. In the great majority of these the Past participle and/or Past tense is In the English language, a modal auxiliary verb is an Auxiliary verb (or helping verb) that can modify the Grammatical mood (or mode Gender in the English language has been the focus of two distinct debates Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. In Linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it often preceded and followed According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the In current linguistic semantics, a predicate is an expression that can be true of something. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from Thus, the expressions "is yellow" or "like broccoli" are true of those things that are yellow or like broccoli, respectively. The latter notion is closely related to the notion of a predicate in formal logic, and includes more expressions than the former one, like, for example, nouns and some kinds of adjectives. Mathematical logic is a subfield of Logic and Mathematics with close connections to Computer science and Philosophical logic. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the
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Predicate in traditional English grammar
In traditional English grammar, a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence (the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies). English grammar is a body of rules ( Grammar) specifying how phrases and sentences are constructed in the English language. In Linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it often preceded and followed According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the In Grammar, a modifier (or qualifier) is a word or Sentence element that limits or qualifies another word a phrase or a clause (2004) The Merriam Webster Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusettes: Merriam-Webster, 566. ISBN 13. The predicate must contain a verb, and the verb requires, permits or precludes other sentence elements to complete the predicate. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. These elements are: objects (direct, indirect, prepositional), predicatives (aka predicate complements: subject complements and object complements) and adverbials (either obligatory or adjuncts). In the following examples, the predicate is underlined.
She dances. (verb only predicate)
John reads the book. (direct object)
John's mother, Felicity, gave me a present. (indirect object without a preposition)
She listened to the radio. In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. (prepositional object)
They elected him president. (predicative /object complement)
She met him in the park. (adverbial)
She is in the park. (obligatory adverbial / adverbial complement)
The predicate provides information about the subject, such as what the subject is doing or what the subject is like.
The relation between a subject and its predicate is sometimes called a nexus. This system of analysing text was first used in Denmark It was a system that was heavily advanced by the Danish Linguist Otto Jespersen.
A Predicate Nominal is a noun phrase that functions as the main predicate of a sentence, such as "George III is the king of England", the king of England being the Predicate Nominal. In grammatical theory, a noun phrase (abbreviated NP) is a Phrase whose head is a Noun or a Pronoun, optionally accompanied The subject and predicate nominal must be connected by a linking verb, also called a copula.
A Predicate Adjective is an adjective that functions as a predicate, such as "Jenny is attractive", attractive being the Predicate Adjective. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the The subject and predicate adjective must be connected by a linking verb, also called copula.
Classes of predicate
Carlson classes
After the work of Greg N. Carlson, predicates have been divided into the following sub-classes, which roughly pertain to how a predicate relates to its subject:
Stage-level predicates
A stage-level predicate ("s-l predicate" for short) is true of a temporal stage of its subject. For example, if John is "hungry", that typically lasts a certain amount of time, and not his entire lifespan.
S-l predicates can occur in a wide range of grammatical constructions and is probably the most versatile kind of predicate.
Individual-level predicates
An individual-level predicate ("i-l predicate") is true throughout the existence of an individual. For example, if John is "smart", this is a property of him, regardless which particular point in time we consider.
I-l predicates are more restricted than s-l ones. I-l predicates can't occur in presentational "there" sentences (a star in front of a sentence indicates that it is odd or ill-formed):
- There are police available. ("available" is s-l)
- *There are firemen altruistic. ("altruistic" is i-l)
S-l predicates allow modification by manner adverbs and other adverbial modifiers. I-l ones do not.
- John spoke French loudly in the corridor. ("speak French" can be interpreted as s-l)
- *John knew French loudly in the corridor. ("know French" can't be interpreted as s-l)
When an i-l predicate occurs in past tense, it gives rise to what is called a "lifetime effect": The subject must be assumed to be dead or otherwise gone out of existence. The past tense is a Verb tense expressing action activity state or being in the past of the current moment (in an Absolute tense system or prior
- John was available. (s-l
no lifetime effect) - John was altruistic. (i-l lifetime effect. )
Kind-level predicates
A kind-level predicate ("k-l predicate") is true of a kind of thing, but cannot be applied to individual members of the kind. An example of this is the predicate "are widespread. " One can't meaningfully say of a particular individual John that he is widespread. One may only say this of kinds, as in
- Humans are widespread.
Certain types of noun phrase can't be the subject of a k-l predicate. In grammatical theory, a noun phrase (abbreviated NP) is a Phrase whose head is a Noun or a Pronoun, optionally accompanied We have just seen that a proper name can't be. "A proper name a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic Singular indefinite noun phrases are also banned from this environment:
- *A cat is widespread. In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" (compare: Nightmares are widespread. )
Collective vs. distributive predicates
Predicates may also be collective or distributive. Collective predicates require their subjects to be somehow plural, while distributive ones don't. An example of a collective predicate is "formed a line". This predicate can only stand in a nexus with a plural subject:
- The students
- *The student formed a line.
Other examples of collective predicates include "meet in the woods", "surround the house", "gather in the hallway" and "carry the piano together". Note that the last one ("carry the piano together") can be made non-collective by removing the word "together". Quantifiers differ with respect to whether or not they can be the subject of a collective predicate. Quantification has two distinct meanings In Mathematics and Empirical science, it refers to human acts known as Counting and Measuring For example, quantifiers formed with "all the" can, while ones formed with "every" or "each" cannot.
- All the students formed a line.
- All the students gathered in the hallway.
- All the students carried a piano together.
- *Each student gathered in the hallway.
- *Every student formed a line.
Vendler classes
The philosopher Zeno Vendler came up with an aspectual classification of verbs, roughly having to do with how they present the temporal span of the events they refer to. Zeno Vendler (1921 – 2004 was a Hungarian-born philosopher He was born and brought up in Hungary in 1921 In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. After the work of the Dutch semanticist Henk Verkuyl, it has been widely acknowledged that the Vendler classes pertain to predicates and not to verbs. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from Whether or not the Vendler classes in their original form are correct is a hotly disputed topic within the semantic theory of aspect and telicity. In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state In Linguistics, telicity is the property of a Verb or Verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense There is a wide consensus that something like them is relevant, however. For some discussion see the references below. Vendler's classes are as follows.
States
A predicate is a state if it presents an event as a static state of affairs, i. The state of affairs is that combination of circumstances applying within a society or group at a particular time e. an event where nothing changes. Stative predicates present events as unbounded in time. Put differently, a sentence like "John is ill" says nothing in particular about the temporal extent of the state he's in. Examples of stative predicates are "be ill", "sleep soundly", "know French". States typically can't occur in the progressive in English:
- *John is being ill. The continuous and progressive aspects are Grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time they are non-habitual imperfective
- *John is knowing French.
They can occur with time-span adverbials like for an hour, but not with time-frame adverbials like "in an hour".
- John was ill for an hour/*in an hour.
Activities
Activities are like states in presenting events as unbounded in time, but they differ from states in involving some kind of change. Examples of activity predicates include "run in the park", "snore loudly", "fall through the air", etc.
Activities can occur in the progressive.
- John is snoring loudly.
- John is falling through the air.
They can occur with time-span adverbials, but not time-frame adverbials:
- John snored for an hour/*in an hour.
Accomplishments
Accomplishment predicates also involve change, but they present the events they refer to as bounded in time. They can be decomposed into two endpoints (the beginning and the culmination of the event) and a process part. Examples of accomplishment predicates are "build a house", "run to the store".
Accomplishments can occur in the progressive. They do not occur with time-span adverbials, but do occur with time-frame adverbials.
- John is running to the store
- John ran to the store in an hour/*for an hour.
Achievements
Achievement predicates are like accomplishments lacking a process part. They denote punctual change. Examples of achievement predicates are "reach the top", "win the race", "find his glasses".
References
- Carlson, Greg N. 1977. A unified analysis of the English bare plural. Linguistics and Philosophy,1:3, 413-458.
- Carlson, Greg N. 1980. Reference to Kinds in English. New York: Garland Publishing. (also distributed by Indiana University Linguistics Club and GLSA UMass/Amherst. )
- Jaeger, Gerhard. 2001. Topic-comment structure and the contrast between stage level and individual level predicates, Journal of Semantics 18(2), pp 83-126
- Kratzer, Angelika. 1995. Stage Level and Individual Level Predicates," in G. Carlson &F. J. Pelletier (eds. ): The Generic Book. Chicago (The University of Chicago Press).
- Krifka, Manfred. 1989. "Nominal Reference, Temporal Constitution and Quantification in Event Semantics". In R. Bartsch, J. van Benthem, P. von Emde Boas (eds. ), Semantics and Contextual Expression, Dordrecht: Foris Publication.
- Vendler, Zeno. Zeno Vendler (1921 – 2004 was a Hungarian-born philosopher He was born and brought up in Hungary in 1921 1967. Linguistics in Philosophy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
- Verkuyl, Henk. 1972. On the Compositional Nature of the Aspects. Foundations of Language Supplement Series, nr. 15. Dordrecht. 185 pages.
- Verkuyl, Henk. 1993. A Theory of Aspectuality. The Interaction between Temporal and Atemporal Structure. . CSIL 64. Cambridge University Press.
See also
- Predicative (adjectival or nominal)
- Subject complement
- Sentence (linguistics)
- Clause
- Inflectional phrase
- Phrase
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