Thematic Structure and Syntax: Revisiting English Depictive Predications

Abstract

English depictive predicates have been analyzed as adjuncts, but their occurrences are not entirely free in that only certain types of predicates allow for the depictive predication constructions. Such restrictions have been analyzed in terms of the distinctions between Stage-Level Predicates and Individual-Level Predicates (Rapoport, 1993): both a main verb and a depictive predicate should be Stage-Level Predicates. However, I argue that the distinction is not sufficient to explain the English depictive predication constructions. Instead of the old distinctions, in this paper I suggest that it is more explanatory to analyze them on the bases of thematic roles: the predication subject of a depictive predicate bears either an agent or a theme role from a main verb. In this sense, I define them in terms of an Agent-Oriented Depictive (AOD) and a Theme-Oriented Depictives (TODs). They differ in that the AOD is predicated of the entity bearing an agent role, whereas the TOD is predicated of the entity bearing the theme role. The distinctive properties between AODs and TODs are explained by Thematic Hierarchy (Baker, 1988; Bresnan, 1989).