Apredicative expression (or justpredicative) is part of aclausepredicate, and is an expression that typically follows acopula orlinking verb, e.g.be,seem,appear, or that appears as asecond complement (object complement) of a certain type of verb, e.g.call,make,name, etc.[1] The most frequently acknowledged types of predicative expressions arepredicative adjectives (alsopredicate adjectives) andpredicative nominals (alsopredicate nominals). The main trait of all predicative expressions is that they serve to express a property that is assigned to a "subject", whereby this subject is usually the clausesubject, but at times it can be the clauseobject.[2] A primary distinction is drawn between predicative (alsopredicate) andattributive expressions. Further, predicative expressions are typicallynot clausearguments, and they are also typicallynot clauseadjuncts. There is hence a three-way distinction between predicative expressions, arguments, and adjuncts.
The termspredicative expression on the one hand, andsubject complement andobject complement on the other hand overlap in meaning to a large extent.
The most widely acknowledged predicative expressions areadjectives andnominals:[3]
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.[4] For example, the predicative expressiona thief in the last sentence serves to assign toJill the property of being a thief. Predicative nominals over subjects are also calledpredicatenominatives, a term borrowed fromLatin grammars and indicating themorphological case that such expressions bear (in Latin).
While the most widely acknowledged predicative expressions are adjectives and nominals, most syntactic categories can be construed as predicative expressions, e.g.
There are, however, certain categories that cannot appear as predicative expressions. Adverbs ending in-ly, for instance, cannot appear as predicative expressions, e.g.
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 expressions are not attributive expressions. The distinction is illustrated best using predicative and attributive adjectives:[5]
A given clause usually contains a single predicative expression (unlesscoordination is involved), but it can contain multiple attributive expressions, e.g.The friendly man found a large snake in his damp bag.
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.
Predicative expressions are typicallynotarguments, e.g.
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 typicallynotadjuncts, e.g.
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 sentenceBill arrived drunk, one can judgedrunk to be both a predicative expression (because it serves to assign a property toBill) and an adjunct (because it appears optionally in the sentence).
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 copulabe, and many languages omit the copula in some contexts or optionally (seezero copula), 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.
