Copular Clauses

Specification, predication and equation

Line Mikkelsen | University of California, Berkeley

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027228093 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027294135 | EUR 105.00 | USD 158.00

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.

[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 85] 2005. viii, 210 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 1 July 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/la.85

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements | p. vii

1. Introduction | pp. 1–3

I. Structure

2. Predicate topicalization | pp. 6–40

3. Alternative structures for specificational clauses | pp. 41–45

II. Meaning

4. Decomposing copular clauses | pp. 48–63

5. Determining the subject type | pp. 64–93

6. The type of the predicate complement | pp. 94–107

7. Consequences and extensions | pp. 108–130

III. Use

8. Aspects of use | pp. 133–161

9. An intergrated analysis | pp. 162–190

10.Conclusion | pp. 191–194

Index | pp. 205–210

“This is a beautiful piece of work, one that I have had much pleasure reading and discussing with students and colleagues. Mikkelsen's account of copular clauses is simply elegant. She is so thorough in her treatment of these copular constructions that in our discussion of her analysis in a recent MIT seminar there wasn't any comment that wasn't already anticipated in her own caveats and footnotes.”

Michel DeGraff, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT

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[no author supplied]

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[no author supplied]

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