Approaches to Complex Predicates

Complex predicates can be loosely defined as a sequence of items that behave as a single predicate, projecting a single argument structure within a clause. Each of the members of the predicate contributes part of the information ordinarily associated with a single head.

The present volume presents a collection of theoretical linguistic results on the study of complex predicates in different perspectives and with a variety of approaches. Important empirical and theoretical issues cutting across various subfields of linguistics are being addressed in this book, such as:

• Syntactic and semantic modeling of complex predicate formation: compositionality, argument structure, event structure.

• Differences between syntactic and morphological processes of lexeme formation.

• Typological and diachronic issues in complex predicate formation.

• Neo-Davidsonian analyses of abstract predicate decomposition and its morphological correlates.

Contributors are: Ane Berro, Denis Creissels, Hannah Gibson, Adele Goldberg, Lutz Marten, Annie Montaut, Léa Nash, Pooja Paul, Pollet Samvelian, Peter Svenonius, and Susanne Wurmbrand.