Resultative and Depictive Constructions in English

Abstract

The following illustrates two types of secondary predication, the resultative and the depictive construction: (1) a. John hammered the metal flat. (Resultative Construction) b. John ate the meat raw. (Depictive Construction) In (la), the adjective flat, called a resultative, a result phrase, or a resultative predicate, describes the final state of the object NP which results from the action or process denoted by the verb. Thus (la) means "John caused the metal to become flat by hammering it." On the other hand, in (lb) the adjective raw, called a depictive, a depictive phrase, or a depictive predicate, characterizes the state of an NP at the time of the initiation of the main predicate's action." So the sentence (lb) has the meaning "John ate the meat, and at the time he ate it, it was raw." Many ltngutsts have assumed that the resultative and the depictive construction are not syntactically different despite their difference in semantic interpretation (cf. Rapoport, 1990). In this paper, however, we propose that the resultative and the depictive construction involve two different types of syntactic configuration.