A DECOMPOSITIONAL APPROACH TO PREDICATES DENOTING EVENTS.
Item
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Title
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A DECOMPOSITIONAL APPROACH TO PREDICATES DENOTING EVENTS.
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Identifier
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AAI8713789
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identifier
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8713789
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Creator
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RAVIN, YAEL.
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Contributor
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Jerrold J. Katz
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Date
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1987
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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The semantic representation of predicates has received renewed attention in recent linguistic research, following the 1981 publication of Chomsky's Lectures on Government and Binding. One of the major features of Chomsky's new theory is the reinstitution of thematic roles, such as Agent and Patient, to express semantic relations between predicates and their arguments. These roles are posited as primitives and play a prominent part in the derivation of syntactic structures. The first part of this dissertation argues against theories such as Chomsky's, which rely on thematic roles. It is shown that their underlying Restrictive approach prevents them from accounting for the syntax and semantics of propositions denoting events. The second part of the dissertation argues in favor of a Nonrestrictive, non-thematic approach to semantics. J. Katz's Decompositional Theory is the Nonrestrictive model adopted here. The meaning of several predicates and propositions denoting events is analyzed and represented in terms of Katz's Theory. The Decompositional analysis is contrasted with the different thematic analyses to reveal a formal system for semantic representation which is complete and consistent and a set of principles which determine semantic properties and relations.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Linguistics
