Predicative expression

::He seems **nice.** — Predicative adjective over the subject. ::Bob is **a postman**. — Predicative nominal over the subject. ::They were all **happy campers**. — Predicative nominal over the subject. ::That shrimp dish made him **sick**. — Predicative adjective over the object. ::We painted the door **white**. — Predicative adjective over the object. ::They elected him **president**. — Predicative nominal over the object. ::They called Jill **a thief**. — Predicative nominal over the object. The formulations "over the subject" and "over the object" indicate that the predicative expression is expressing a property that is assigned to the subject or to the object. For example, the predicative expression *a thief* in the last sentence serves to assign to *Jill* the property of being a thief. Predicative nominals over subjects are also called *predicate nominatives*, a term borrowed from Latin grammars and indicating the morphological case that such expressions bear (in Latin). ## Further examples While the most widely acknowledged predicative expressions are adjectives and nominals, most syntactic categories can be construed as predicative expressions, e.g. ::The snake is **in the bag**. — Predicative prepositional phrase. ::That is **when it happens**. — Predicative clause. ::It is **soon**. — Predicative adverb. There are, however, certain categories that cannot appear as predicative expressions. Adverbs ending in *-ly*, for instance, cannot appear as predicative expressions, e.g. :: *The event was **splendidly**. — Failed attempt to use an adverb ending in *-ly* as a predicative expression. :: *Our ideas are **insightfully**. — Failed attempt to use an adverb ending in *-ly* as a predicative expression. These examples raise the following fundamental question: What characteristic of words and phrases allows or prohibits them from appearing as predicative expressions? The answer to this question is not apparent. ## Predicative adjectives vs. attributive adjectives Predicative expressions are not attributive expressions. The distinction is illustrated best using predicative and attributive adjectives: ::a. The man is **friendly**. — Predicative adjective. ::b. the **friendly** man — Attributive adjective. ::a. One snake was **large**. — Predicative adjective. ::b. one **large** snake — Attributive adjective. ::a. His bag is **damp**. — Predicative adjective. ::b. his **damp** bag — Attributive adjective. A given clause usually contains a single predicative expression (unless coordination is involved), but it can contain multiple attributive expressions, e.g. *The friendly man found a large snake in his damp bag.* ## Predicative adjectives vs. postpositive adjectives Postpositive adjectives are attributive adjectives which modify the immediately preceding noun or pronoun to create a noun phrase. (A predicate adjective is frequently preceded by a linking verb.) Postpositive adjectives are rare in English, but common in many other languages. ::a. Something is **different**. — Predicative adjective. ::b. I want something **different**. — Postpositive adjective. ::a. He is **taller than you**. — Predicative adjective. ::b. I met a person **taller than you** — Postpositive adjective. ## Predicatives vs. arguments and adjuncts Predicative expressions are typically *not* arguments, e.g. ::a. She was **our friend**. — Predicative nominal. ::b. She visited **our friend**. — Argument nominal. ::a. That is **an excuse**. — Predicative nominal. ::b. He produced **an excuse**. — Argument nominal. The predicative expressions here are properties that are assigned to the subject, whereas the arguments cannot be construed as such properties. Predicative expressions are also typically *not* adjuncts, e.g. ::a. The bag is **under the bed**. — Predicative prepositional phrase. ::b. Something is moving **under the bed**. — Adjunct prepositional phrase. ::a. The dispute was **after the talk was completely over**. — Predicative clause. ::b. Everybody relaxed **after the talk was completely over**. — Adjunct clause. The predicative expressions again serve to assign a property to the subject, e.g. the property of being under the bed. In contrast, the adjuncts serve to establish the situational context. One can hence acknowledge a three-way distinction between predicative expressions, arguments, and adjuncts. However, upon deeper examination, the lines between these categories become blurred and overlap can occur. For instance, in the sentence *Bill arrived drunk*, one can judge *drunk* to be both a predicative expression (because it serves to assign a property to *Bill*) and an adjunct (because it appears optionally in the sentence). ## In other languages Predicative expressions exist in most if not all languages. In languages that have morphological case, predicative nominals typically appear in the nominative case (e.g., German and Russian) or instrumental case (e.g. Russian), although predicative expressions over objects generally bear the same case as the object. Some languages lack an equivalent of the copula *be*, and many languages omit the copula in some contexts or optionally, which means that the case marker plays a greater role since it helps distinguish predicative nominals from argument nominals. Some languages (e.g., Tabasaran, Pacoh) have a separate predicative case. ## Notes ## References - Burton-Roberts 1997. *Analysing sentences: An introduction to English grammar*. London: Longman. - Crystal, D. 1997. *A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics*, 4th edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. - Hudson, R. 1984. *Word grammar*. New York: Basil Blackwell Publisher. - Lester, M. 1971. *Introductory transformational grammar of English*. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. - Radford, A. 2004. *English syntax: An introduction*. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ## References 1. See for instance Burton-Roberts (1997:79). 2. See for instance Radford (2004:353). 3. For an insightful discussion of predicative adjectives and nominals, see Lester (1971:86ff.). 4. Concerning the fact that predicative expressions express some property of another entity in the sentence, see Hudson (1984:95f.). 5. 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