Semantics I acknowledgements
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| 4. 10. 1 Types of Predication A predication can contain one argument or two arguments, or it can be said that some predication do not contain argument. One which has no argument is seen in ; It is raining, where it has no meaning unless it is not dependent of the predicate. One which has two arguments is ; Netty likes chocolates and predication which contains one argument ; Ida is kind. We can diagram them as Two place 1 0 P P P a b a Ida is (be) kind Mary likes chocolate It is cold The one and two place predicate can be put into a linear formulate : Two-lace predication : (a. P.b) or (b. P.a) or (a. P. b.) One place predication : (a : P) or (P ; a) The bracket shows predication, single dot separates arguments from predicate in two-place predication, and colon separates argument from predicate in one-place predication. Thus anew formulate can be made ac- Lateral Adult Male - male Singular Singular Taufik is behind Ani SEMANTICS Page If we take an example like ; Sarman gives Anto a book., how to construct with the same formulae Shall we say that it contains three arguments, and determine it as three place prediction? To answer this question, it is necessary drawing the deep structure o the sentence as: Sarman gives a book. Sarman give anto. It will be clearly seen in the three diagram below : S NP VP Vb NP NP S Gives a book VP NP John gives Anto SEMANTICS Page In fact, the case above is about the subordinate predication, of which predicate may contain not only arguments but also other predicates. Serman gives Anto a book can be drawn as : Sarman causes XX = Anto receives a book. It will be analyzed in the next paragraph. Now, apart from subordinate predication, the types of predication : one-place predication, two-place predication and predication which contains no argument are also embedded as : Two-place predication : transitive e.g. The societies criticized the government’s policy. One-place predication : intransitive e.g. Roy is sleeping. The president is generous It is impossible to place predication of no argument to be transitive or intransitive or intransitive in ; It is raining, because as Leech proved we cannot construct a question for which it is an appropriate answer ; “What was raining cats and dogs all last night * It (p : 131). Even if we substitute an argument like earth to it ; The earth is raining. But it is possible to say : The earth is covered by rain. Unlike in ; It is warm, arguments like the weather, His welcome, etc, can be substituted. Thus the predication of this kind seems logical, and it can be typed into a one-place predication. SEMANTICS Page Subordinate Predication A subordinate predication is what we call in syntax as a nominal clause. The example that has been mentioned – Sarman causes X, where X Anto receivesa book. So, it would be : Sarman causes Anto receives a book, that can be diagrammed below : P CAUSE Sarmn Anto Receive c book it is based on, John made bill become / get angry, as seen in the diagram (Leech : 142) : P CAUSE a Q John become R Angry B bill SEMANTICS Page Note : P, QR, are predicates ab, are arguments. The predication contains three predicates : Cause, Becomes, and Angry. The linear notation is used a. p. QR b or they can be symbolized a follows John. Cause. (Become (Angry Bill If we change the form into : John expected to get a prize, here the subordinate predication is to get a prize. To be a noun clause, as Leech expressed (pit necessary to change it – that he will get a prize. So it becomes ; John expected that he will get a prize. The diagram can be drawn below : P EXPECT a Q John GET b prize The linear notation would be a. P. (Q : b)). (John. EXPECT. (GET : Prize We have seen that some elements whether it is drawn in the diagram or in the linear formulae are lost. Like the article, tense, etc. they are dummy elements in syntax, that is, elements which exist on the syntactic level to fulfill certain conditions of syntactic wellformedness but which have no semantic content (Leech : 184). SEMANTICS Page Despite of their semanticless content, they are logical elements as have been studied in the previous section (tense will be discussed later). Downgraded Predication Downgraded predication can be expressed by means of a relative clause and adverbial clause. To make clear, two kinds of downgraded predication are given here. A qualifying Predication occurs within a predicate, and underlies many of the adjectival function of syntax : adjective, qualifying prepositional phrase, relative clause, etc. e.g. rich bachelor, bachelors who own fast cars. 2. A modifying predication occurs within a predicate, and underlines many of the adverbial function of syntax : adverbs, adverbial prepositional phrases, adverbial clauses, etc. e.g. He got married in church, He soon got married, He got married to please the family, (Leech : We should not be misunderstood, that adjectives (adjectival phrase) are also included as one-place predication. We can see, for example, He is a rich bachelor. The diagram can be drawn below : P RICH BACHELOR a he The linear form is : ab, P. or man (who. RICH). SEMANTICS Page If the single word bachelor put into definition a man who is not married (as downgraded predication can also be made into its definition, see also Leech :145) it becomes downgrade predication. Thus it would be ; He is a man who is not married. How about the word rich It is, certainly to be concluded : He is a rich man who is not married. P RICHMAN a Q he - MARRIED The linear from : (a : Pb. Q) or (man : RIH (who. NOT MARRIED). So a qualifying predication can be as a one-place predication if it occurs within a single word. The case above ; He is a rich man who is not married is a one-place predication which contains another predication The modifying predication which occurs within predicate can also be found in a definition of a single word like sprint means to run quickly, repeat means to say again, etc. The predication in You will wait till my returning (the modifying predication) is in adverb phrase. To bean adverb clause it needs to be changed into ; You will wait till I return. The diagram is : SEMANTICS Page 88 P WAIT a b Q You I RETURN The linear form : (AP (b. Q) or : (you : WAIT (I : RETURN) A modifying predication of in The girl was asleep, which lasted three hours is which lasted, which is derives form for (The girl slept for three hours. Here the predication is analyzed into (based on Leech) : (a P) The linear form : (a : Pb. QC) shows Downgraded Predication or (girl : SLEEP (which. LAST. Hours). Here, even though there are two predicates, but in componential analysis only one is included, because we see in the diagram asleep and which HUMAN - ADULT - MALE SINGULAR + ASLEEP (which. LAST hours) SEMANTICS Page lasted three hours are treated as the features of the predicate. Why not like in your first analysis (i.e. in font of direction, + horizontal etc, thus the predication above asleep is analyzed in the same way. In predication analysis, apart from the arguments and predicates which consist of features, the role of syntax cannot be ignored as what have been found in the analysis. Therefore, t is important to seethe relation (syntactic and semantic relation by means of the terms in predication analysis) which is based on the chart below : Syntactic Semantic Noun phrase Verb phrase Adjective (phrase) Prepositional phrase Relative clause Adverbial phrase Phrase or clause Nominal clause Nominalization Argument Predicate One-place predicate Downgraded predication Downgraded qualifying predication Downgraded modifying Predication Subordinate predication Note : Some elements are not included, as it is out of the analysis. |