Abandoning the EPP-feature in Polish dual copula clauses by redefining the predication relation

This paper questions the logic behind the presence and the working of the EPP-feature in Polish dual copula clauses (henceforth, DCCs) with the pronominal copula to, the verbal copula być ‘to be’, and two nominative 3rd person DPs, as represented in Bondaruk (2019). The criticism follows from: (i) – Chomsky’s (2000, 2001) downward Agree operation; (ii) – the view that the predicator encodes the predication relation between the pre-copular subject and the post-copular predicate; (iii) – selective multiple Agree, whereby the satisfaction of the EPP- and uφ-features is divorced. Adopting (i)–(iii), Bondaruk’s scrutiny allows either the pre- or the post-copular DP to occupy SpecTP, thereby accounting for DCCs’ agreement and configurational patterns, but, simultaneously, suffering from theoretical shortcomings it creates. We argue for a simpler satisfaction of the subject requirement which does not rely on the troublesome EPP-feature, but is motivated formally by the relation between T and the higher DP. We derive this requirement by following Zeiljstra’s (2012) upward Agree which only takes place once interpretable features c-command uninterpretable features, and Rothstein’s (2004) approach which is based on a neo-Davidsonian event semantics and which argues that be and its complement form a complex predicate, separated from the pre-copular DP both semantically and syntactically.

Semantics-oriented resultatives: Evidence from valency alternation verbs

Resultative phrases are generally believed to conform to the Direct Object Restriction: that is, they describe the direct object if verbs are transitive. However, some exceptions have occasionally been reported, and this paper investigates the problem by focusing on resultative phrases that occur with the valency alternation verbs in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Verbs that license the locative alternation and locatum-subject alternation describe events that involve two arguments, the location and the locatum, which are perceived to concurrently undergo a change of state. It will be shown that resultative phrases with a valency alternation verb can be predicated of either argument regardless of whether it is expressed as direct object. Furthermore, resultative verbal suffixes in Mandarin, interpreted as description of either the location or the locatum, give rise to the locative alternation while their interpretation remains the same. Thus, it is claimed that in Japanese and Mandarin, the predication relation of resultative phrases is not determined by the grammatical function of arguments as generally believed, but rather by the lexical semantics of the verbs.

PROPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF A DIALOGICAL TEXT: ON THE EXAMPLE OF CHINESE CONFLICT DIALOGUE

The paper presents the algorithm for propositional analysis of a dialogical text on the example of Chinese conflict dialogue. The algorithm proposed by the author helps to identify the types of text level propositions dominating in a certain type of dialogue and to observe the key feature of dialogue interactivity on the dictum level. According to the results of the analysis the propositions of determining predication, relation object predication and quality predication have been identified as dominating in Chinese conflict dialogue. The feature of interactivity reveals itself in Chinese conflict dialogue in three main types of final correlation: proposition-question - proposition-answer, proposition-opinion - proposition-evaluation and the adversative type of the final correlation.

A Logical Reconstruction of Leibniz’s Argument for His Complete Concept Conception of the Nature of Substance in Discours §8

This paper develops a valid reconstruction in first-order predicate logic of Leibniz’s argument for his complete concept definition of substance in §8 of the Discours de Métaphysique. Following G. Rodriguez-Pereyra, it construes the argument as resting on two substantial premises, the “merely verbal” Aristotelian definition and Leibniz’s concept containment theory of truth, and it understands the resulting “real” definition as saying not that an entity is a substance iff its complete concept contains every predicate of that entity, but iff its complete concept contains every predicate of any subject to which that concept is truly attributable. An account is suggested of why Leibniz criticises the Aristotelian definition as merely nominal and how he takes his own definition to overcome this shortcoming: while on the Aristotelian basis the predication relation could generate endless chains, so that substances as endpoints of predication would be impossible, Leibniz’s definition reveals lowest species as such endpoints, which he therefore identifies with individual substances. Since duplicate lowest species make no sense, the Identity of Indiscernibles for substances follows. The reading suggests a Platonist interpretation according to which substances do not so much have but are individual essences, natures or forms.

Canonical and reverse predication in the syntax of the active/passive diathesis alternation

This chapter defends an analysis of the active/passive alternation sharing with Collins’s smuggling proposal the idea that the participial VP occupies a specifier position above the external argument, but base-generating it in this position rather than moving it there. In both the active and the passive, the VP and the external argument are in a predication structure, with a RELATOR mediating the predication relation. The active voice builds a canonical predication structure, with the VP in the RELATOR’S complement position and the subject of predication as the specifier. In the passive voice, the VP is externally merged in the specifier of the RELATOR and the external argument in its complement. This analysis provides an explanation for obligatory auxiliation, the unavailability of accusative Case for the internal argument, Visser’s Generalization (the ban on personal passivization of subject control verbs), and the restrictions on referential dependencies and depictive secondary predication in passives.

Appearance and Existence in Mandarin Chinese

In Mandarin Chinese, the string of three overt elements in a row, a locative, a verb, and a nominal, asserts the existence of the entity denoted by the nominal in the location. This paper argues that the verb is contained in an adjunct, whereas the locative in its base position and the nominal establish a matrix predication relation. Thus, instead of the overt verb, the head of the matrix predicate of the construction is null. Moreover, a new analysis is provided to explain the obligatory argument sharing between the verb and the matrix predication of the construction. Furthermore, the paper argues that the agent of a transitive verb in certain types of embedded clauses needs to be Case-licensed by either the v of the selecting verb, as in an ECM construction, or a local c-commanding functional element, such as a complementizer, as in the English infinitive for construction. This Case-licensing explains why the transitive verb in the string has no agent. The research shows that the syntactic strategies to license abstract Cases in Chinese are similar to the ones found in other languages. Finally, the paper argues that the post-verbal -zhe is an adessive marker when it occurs in a non-progressive context.

Introduction to Part II

A chapter-by-chapter summary of part II is given. Object projectivism, the position argued for in part II, is described in general. Individuation conditions and location conditions are characterized, and how object projectivism treats these as projected on the world is described as well. Possible historical anticipations of the position of feature metaphysics are mentioned. An important aspect of the position is sketched: that the appropriate language for metaphysics avoids the predication relation, replacing it with a cooccurence relation. Nevertheless, the resulting language is equal in strength to what it replaces. A first-time examination of a quite radically austere metaphysical position is promised.

Feature-Characterization Languages

The language appropriate to feature metaphysics is described. This language is one that induces no commitments to objects, although it allows an expression of a commitment to the reality of ontological borders. The language resembles, on the surface, weather reports, with apparently pleonastic subject terms. Feature-characterization languages are shown to be as expressively powerful as those that utilize first-order quantification. They differ from first-order languages because the traditional predication relation (which presupposes objects and properties and relations of those objects) is replaced by an “is at” relation that presupposes none of these things. It’s also shown that the presupposition of locations (in space and time) isn’t required either. The language requires, metaphysically, only that features co-occur.

On Copular Sentences in Irish and Polish

The paper aims at comparing syntactic properties of various types of copular sentences found in Irish and in Polish. The two languages are particularly fitted for comparison because, unlike a number of natural languages, they possess two ways of expressing a predication relation. In the case of Irish this relation is expressed by two verbal elements tá and is, while in Polish, in addition to a regular verbal structure with być ‘be’, there occurs a pronominal construction with the invariable element to ‘this’ (cf. the Russian ėto). First, the inflectional forms of the predicative verbal elements are examined. Then, a detailed overview of the contexts in which each copular structure can be used is undertaken. It is noted that in both languages the structures with tá and być can appear with AP, PP, AdvP predicates. However, tá is different from być in that it can also take VP complements. A further difference relates to the fact that while nominal complements in Irish can only follow the copula is, they are perfectly licit in both types of Polish copular structures, nonetheless, yielding a distinct case marking on the predicate. It is worth mentioning that the use of to in Polish is more limited than that of is in Irish; only the latter can co-occur with adjectival and prepositional predicates, while the former can link only identical categories, i.e. either two nominals or two infinitives. Moreover, Polish exhibits an interesting copular structure in which both być and to co-occur, e.g.: Marek to jest mój przyjaciel. ‘lit. Mark this is my friend.’ In the final part of the paper an attempt is made to offer an analysis of the structural positions of both Irish tá and is and Polish być and to, taking into account their linking possibilities, interpretational differences they give rise to and the order of the predicates. It is argued that while two Irish verbs to be can be classed together, an analogous treatment for Polish copular elements cannot be maintained.