Open AccessNominal predication and focus anchoring
Author(s) -
SzeWing Tang
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.22.2001.105
Subject(s) - predicative expression , copula (linguistics) , anchoring , linguistics , predicate (mathematical logic) , verb , computer science , syntax , focus (optics) , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , psychology , philosophy , cognitive science , programming language , physics , optics
It will be shown that verbs can be missing in predicative sentences by using the data from Chinese. Copula-less sentences in Chinese are subject to 'Generalized Anchoring Principle' (GAP), which requires that every clause be anchored at the interface for LF convergence. To satisfy GAP, clauses may be either tensed or focused. It is shown that copula-less sentences in Chinese are subject to focus anchoring. It will be further argued that whether a verb is needed in predication depends on the syntax of predicate nominals.