Copular clauses : specification, predication and equation

• Main Author: Mikkelsen, Line
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam J. Benjamins Pub 2005; John Benjamins Publishing Company; John Benjamins
• Edition: 1
• Series: Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today
• Subjects: Clauses; Generative linguistics; Germanic linguistics; Grammar, Comparative and general; Grammar, Comparative and general > Clauses; Grammar, Comparative and general > Syntax; Grammar, Comparative and general > Verb phrase; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General; Semantics; Syntax; Theoretical linguistics; Verb phrase
• ISBN: 9027228094; 9789027228093

This book is concerned with a class of copular clauses known as specificational clauses, and its relation to other kinds of copular structures, predicational and equative clauses in particular. Based on evidence from Danish and English, I argue that specificational clauses involve the same core predication structure as predicational clauses - one which combines a referential and a predicative expression to form a minimal predicational unit - but differ in how the predicational core is realized syntactically. Predicational copular clauses represent the canonical realization, where the referential expression is aligned with the most prominent syntactic position, the subject position. Specificational clauses involve an unusual alignment of the predicative expression with subject position. I suggest that this unusual alignment is grounded in information structure: the alignment of the less referential DP with the subject position serves a discourse connective function by letting material that is relatively familiar in the discourse appear before material that is relatively unfamiliar in the discourse. Equative clauses are argued to be fundamentally different.