Unclear Predication in the Construction
This paper examines Evaluative Adjectives (in short: EAs) like brave, clever, crazy, foolish, silly, wise when followed by to + infinive as in (1) or (2):(1) C8T 2147 I suppose I'm silly to worry about that. (Examples from the BNC)(2) EU 1623 You’d be crazy to sell today. Intuitively, this cons...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2012-03-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/2368 |
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| _version_ | 1841552557849182208 |
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| author | Christopher DESURMONT |
| author_facet | Christopher DESURMONT |
| author_sort | Christopher DESURMONT |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper examines Evaluative Adjectives (in short: EAs) like brave, clever, crazy, foolish, silly, wise when followed by to + infinive as in (1) or (2):(1) C8T 2147 I suppose I'm silly to worry about that. (Examples from the BNC)(2) EU 1623 You’d be crazy to sell today. Intuitively, this construction appears to be a case of Stage-level predication (Stowell, 1991). However, the Derived EA construction passes none of the classic S-level tests, as demonstrated in Kertz’ (2006) “Adjunct Control analysis”. Yet to consider this construction as a clear case of Individual-level predication remains counter-intuitive. This paper aims at showing that it should be regarded as a case of “unclear predication”, and as such, having the pragmatic advantage of enabling the speaker to pronounce a judgment without clearly committing themselves. The following parameters are taken into account: the syntactic status of the EA’s infinitival modifier, the semantic status of its propositional content, and the preconstruction behind the adjectival predication. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a4a631edc39148b6bafdc241a0f754d7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-03-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-a4a631edc39148b6bafdc241a0f754d72025-01-09T12:54:41ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182012-03-019210.4000/erea.2368Unclear Predication in the ConstructionChristopher DESURMONTThis paper examines Evaluative Adjectives (in short: EAs) like brave, clever, crazy, foolish, silly, wise when followed by to + infinive as in (1) or (2):(1) C8T 2147 I suppose I'm silly to worry about that. (Examples from the BNC)(2) EU 1623 You’d be crazy to sell today. Intuitively, this construction appears to be a case of Stage-level predication (Stowell, 1991). However, the Derived EA construction passes none of the classic S-level tests, as demonstrated in Kertz’ (2006) “Adjunct Control analysis”. Yet to consider this construction as a clear case of Individual-level predication remains counter-intuitive. This paper aims at showing that it should be regarded as a case of “unclear predication”, and as such, having the pragmatic advantage of enabling the speaker to pronounce a judgment without clearly committing themselves. The following parameters are taken into account: the syntactic status of the EA’s infinitival modifier, the semantic status of its propositional content, and the preconstruction behind the adjectival predication.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/2368adjectiveinfinitiveadjunctcomplementpredicationpresupposition |
| spellingShingle | Christopher DESURMONT Unclear Predication in the Construction E-REA adjective infinitive adjunct complement predication presupposition |
| title | Unclear Predication in the Construction |
| title_full | Unclear Predication in the Construction |
| title_fullStr | Unclear Predication in the Construction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unclear Predication in the Construction |
| title_short | Unclear Predication in the Construction |
| title_sort | unclear predication in the construction |
| topic | adjective infinitive adjunct complement predication presupposition |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/2368 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christopherdesurmont unclearpredicationintheconstruction |