This book considers the syntax and semantics of non-verbal predicates (i.e., nominal, adjectival and prepositional predicates) in copular sentences. Isabelle Roy explores how a single structure for predication can account for the different interpretations of non-verbal predicates. The book departs from earlier studies by arguing in favor of a ternary distinction between defining / characterizing / situation-descriptive predicates rather than the more common stage-level/individual distinction. The distinction is based on two semantic criteria, namely maximality (i.e., whether the predicate describes an eventuality that has spatio-temporal properties or not) and density (i.e. whether the spatio-temporal properties are perceived as atomic or not). The author argues in favor of a strong correlation between the semantics properties of predicates and their internal syntactic structure. Her analysis accounts for seemingly unrelated cross-linguistic data: the indefinite article in French, the distribution of the two copulas 'ser'/'estar' in Spanish, and case marking on Russian predicates.

Isabelle Roy is an Associate Professor at the Unversity of Paris 8. She received her PhD from the University of Southern California in 2006.

I Predicational copular sentences at the syntax-semantics interface; 1 Introduction; 2 Predication, non-verbal stative predicates and copular sentences; II Meanings and structures; 3 Meaning and typology of non-verbal predicates; 4 Internal syntax of non-verbal predicates; III Further analysis; 5 The case of the Russian copula; 6 Spanish multiple 'be'; 7 Irish multiple 'be' and genericity; 8 Conclusion; References; Index