Glossary: Predicate
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The following material is an adapted form of material created by student participants of the project e-Learning Resources for Semantics (e-LRS). Involved participants: Lisa, Marthe, Elisabeth, Isabelle.
Predicate
Definition
There are two competing meanings of the term "predicate" in grammar. The traditional predicate gives meaning to a sentence by giving informtion about the subject of the sentence (What is the subject doing? What is the subject? What/Who is the subject? How is the subject?). The predicate must contain a verb, and the verb requires, permits, or precludes the object of a sentence to complete the predicate.
The other meaning of the word "predicate" is applianced in the context of modern theories of syntax and grammar (such as First Order Predicate Logic). In this approach, the predicate of a sentence serves either to assign an information (property) to a single argument ("argument" here meaning a part of the sentence, such as subjects and objects) or to relate two or more arguments to each other. The predicate is seen as linking its arguments into a greater structure. A structure which can be paraphrased in a structured way which gives information about the sentence's relations.
Examples
Predicate in traditional grammar:
She swims. (the predicate consists of a single verb)
Anna writes a letter. (the predicate consists of a verb and a direct-object)
Predicate in modern grammar:
Some predicates assign property to a single argument, other predicates relate to two or more arguments (one-place, two-place, three-place, ... predicates)
Tom smiled. (one-place predicate)
Anna helped her mother. (two-place-predicate)
Tom gave a present to Anna. (three-place-predicate)
Sound file
References
Literature
- Levine, Robert D., Frank Richter, and Manfred Sailer (in preparation): Formal Semantics. An Empirically Grounded Approach. Stanford: CSLI Publications. Draft of April 2012. Chapter 2.
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