Glossary: Predicate

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 (meaning a part of the sentence, such as subjects and objects) or to relate two or more arguments to each other.

Examples

∗∗ Predicate in traditional grammar:

∗

∗∗ Predicate in modern grammar:

References

• Predicate Logic
• Logical Connectives

Literature

• Chapter 2 of Manfred Sailer's textbook