Within a theoretical framework that combines generative X-bar syntax (Chomsky 1986), a compositional interpretive semantics and elements of Aristotelian logic, this thesis studies the nature of the syntactic and semantic constituents involved in the subject-predicate relations of elementary sentences containing 'be'. Interpretation is characterized in terms of the entities of various types that speakers intend to refer to and the various ontological types that the referents are said to belong to. 'Be' is analyzed as a single lexical item. This analysis unifies all syntactic functions (e.g., auxiliary, copula, main verb) and all "senses" of 'be' (e.g., definitional, equative, predicative, etc.). Conceptually, 'be' in English is an explicit sign of attribution. The propositional content of simple sentences of the form (NP be XP) is the attribution of a certain ontological type or types to the referent(s) of the subject NP. Although the value of postulating a single ontological category to account for all the entities that speakers can refer to and talk about (such as an Aristotelian substance) is questionable, nevertheless, such categories and types seem pertinent for linguistic analysis. With respect to linguistic inference, pronominalization, and question words, an analysis based on ontological types is shown to be more explanatory than one based on the assignment of a fixed set of thematic relations to arguments.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75679 |
| Date | January 1987 |
| Creators | Styan, Evelyn Matheson |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Linguistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000665225, proquestno: AAINL45953, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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