Syntactic predicates

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10140366
AutoresTimothy Osborne (0000-0001-5685-357X, Zhejiang University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2026
Páginas1-35
Fecha de publicación2026-02-11
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-2267 • E-ISSN: 1469-7742
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022226726101121
OpenAlexW7128483625
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas37

Most theories of sentence structure acknowledge predicates, yet what one understands a predicate to be can vary significantly from one theory to the next, and from one grammarian to the next. This article surveys how the predicate notion is understood in semantics, syntax, and grammar studies quite generally. It scrutinizes the various predicate concepts, and then argues in favor of one particular understanding of predicates in syntax, one that is especially congruent with a dependency grammar (DG) approach to sentence structures. Predicates are catenae , the catena being a concrete unit of syntactic analysis. The catena-based approach to predicates is motivated in three areas: in terms of the synthetic vs. analytic realizations of meaning, in terms of entailment patterns, and in terms of pronoun resolution. The catena-based approach makes insightful generalizations in these areas possible

Grammar · Logical consequence · Predicate (mathematical logic · Pronoun · Sentence · Syntactic structure · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation