Curs Advanced Issues in Cognitive Science and Linguistics – Caroline Heycock (University of Edinburgh)

Advanced Issues in Cognitive Science and Linguistics
Curs del Màster CCiL

Nominal predication and the syntax of copular constructions
CAROLINE HEYCOCK (University of Edinburgh)

Del 12 al 16 de maig del 2025
Sala d’Actes Frederic Udina (B7/1056), Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres, UAB
11:30 – 14:00

RESUM DEL CURS:

At least since Aristotle, it is common to think of sentences as divided into a subject and a predicate. The typical predicate is headed by a verb, but there are many instances where it is possible for the predicate of a sentence to be headed by a non-verbal category. Adjectival predication is perhaps what comes to mind first, but prepositional and even nominal predicates are often available. The last case is perhaps the most immediately challenging, since nouns are the quintessential argumental category. In this course we’ll investigate the syntax of non-verbal predication, focussing primarily on nominal predicates, which immediately give rise to many questions.  Is the internal structure of nominals used as predicates different to that of nominals in argument position?  If so, how exactly?  If not, are the nominals themselves embedded in further functional structure? Why are some nominal predications “reversible” but others not? Is there a distinct syntax for “equation/identity”?  What agreement patterns are found in nominal predications crosslinguistically, and how can we explain the variation in this area?  Why do some types of nominal predicates have a fixed information structure?   To address these questions, we will be reading both classic and current literature on these issues, and participants will also be encouraged to investigate these and related phenomena in languages that are of interest to them.