Open AccessStage levels, states, and the semantics of the copula
Author(s) -
Gerhard Jäger
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.14.1999.5
Subject(s) - predicative expression , copula (linguistics) , categorization , predicate (mathematical logic) , contrast (vision) , semantics (computer science) , mathematics , computer science , linguistics , artificial intelligence , econometrics , philosophy , programming language
The paper investigates the issue whether the stage-level/individual level contrast introduced by Carlson 1977 requires the assumption of two homonymous copulas depending on the categorization of the predicative. We argue that instead of a uniform stage-level/individual level distinction we have to distinguish several similar but independent contrasts, none of which crucially depend on the semantics of the copula. In the second part of the paper, we concentrate on one group of phenomena-the distribution of weak subjects-and propose an explanation in terms of an interaction between topic/comment structure and aspectual properties of the predicate.