The Restriction on Predicative Codas in Existential There-Clauses. Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Abstract

This thesis investigates the so-called Predicate Restriction (PR) in English existential sentences. The general consensus in the literature is that only stage-level predicates (i.e. predicates denoting temporary properties, like 'sick') can appear in the coda of an existential sentence, while individual-level predicates (i.e. predicates that denote permanent properties, like 'tall') are excluded. After a discussion of the various theoretical approaches to the PR (syntactic, semantic, as well as pragmatic), this thesis pursues two empirical studies, using both corpus data from the BNC and a judgment study. Both studies confirm the theoretical preference for SLP (in a general sense), but also show that the distinction between predicates should not be reduced to a binary SLP–ILP choice. Predicates should rather be analysed in a more fine-grained system with multiple factors, as done in Jäger (2001).