UNIT 5 PREDICATES

Entry requirements REFERENCE and SENSE (Unit 3) and REFERRING EXPRESSIONS (Unit 4).
If you feel you understand these notions, take the entry test below. If not,
review Units 3 and 4.

Entry test (1) Which of the following is the phrase a tall tree? Circle your answer.
(a) a referring expression
(b) not a referring expression
(c) sometimes a referring expression and sometimes not, depending on
context and circumstances of use
(2) Is the following statement correct (Yes) or incorrect (No)?
Whether a sentence contains any referring expressions or not
depends on the time and place at which the sentence occurs. Yes / No
(3) Which of the following sentences is equative? Circle your answer.
(a) Mahmoud is an Egyptian
(b) I was telling you about Mahmoud the Egyptian
(c) Mahmoud is the Egyptian I was telling you about
(d) Mahmoud is a genius
(4) Does if have sense in the same way that dog has sense? Yes / No
(5) Do the expressions big and large have essentially the same
sense in the following sentences?
I live in a big house
I live in a large house Yes / No
(6) Circle those of the following words which can be referring
expressions (in normal everyday English).
John, below, Venus, swims, round, beautiful, under, went.

Feedback (1)(c) (2) No: replace ‘sentence’ by ‘utterance’ to get a correct statement.
(3) (c) (4) No (5) Yes (6) John, Venus
If you have scored less than 5 correct out of 6, you should review the relevant
unit. If you have scored at least 5 correct out of 6, continue to the introduction.

Introduction We start by examining the semantic structure of simple declarative sentences,

such as My dog bit the postman or Mrs Wraith is waiting for the downtown

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PART TWO From reference . . .

bus. Typically such sentences contain one or more referring expressions, plus
some other words that do not form part of any of the referring expressions.
It is on these other words that we shall now concentrate.

Practice In the following sentences, delete the referring expressions and write down
the remainder to the right of the example. We have done the first one for you.
(1) My dog bit the postman bit
(2) Mrs Wraith is writing the Mayor’s speech
(3) Cairo is in Africa
(4) Edinburgh is between Aberdeen and York
(5) This place stinks
(6) John’s car is red
(7) Einstein was a genius

Feedback (2) Mrs Wraith is writing the Mayor’s speech is writing

(3) Cairo is in Africa is in
(4) Edinburgh is between Aberdeen and York is between, and
(5) This place stinks stinks
(6) John’s car is red is red
(7) Einstein was a genius was a genius

Comment The ‘remainders’ written in the right-hand column are quite a varied set.
But in each case it is possible to discern one word (or part of a word) which
‘carries more meaning’ than the others. For instance, write in example
(2) carries more specific information than is and the suffix -ing. If one strips
away such less meaningful elements, one is left with a sequence of words,
which, though ungrammatical and inelegant, can still be understood as
expressing a proposition. The result is a kind of ‘Tarzan jungle talk’,
e.g. Boy bad for The boy is bad, or Woman write speech for The woman is
writing the speech.

Practice Listed below are the remainders from the above examples. In each case, write
down the single word (or part of a word) which carries the most specific
information. We have done the first one for you.
(1) is writing write
(2) is in
(3) is between, and
(4) stinks
(5) is red
(6) was a genius

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 U NI T 5 Predicates

Feedback (2) in (3) between (4) stink (5) red (6) genius

Comment The words we have just isolated from their original sentences we call the
predicators of those sentences.

Definition The PREDICATOR of a simple declarative sentence is the word (sometimes a

(partial) group of words) which does not belong to any of the referring expressions
and which, of the remainder, makes the most specific contribution to the
meaning of the sentence. Intuitively speaking, the predicator describes the
state or process in which the referring expressions are involved.

Example asleep is the predicator in Mummy is asleep and describes the state Mummy is
in.
love is the predicator in The white man loved the Indian maiden and describes
the process in which the two referring expressions the white man and the
Indian maiden are involved.
wait for is the predicator in Jimmy was waiting for the downtown bus and
describes the process involving Jimmy and the downtown bus.

Comment Note that some of the elements that we have stripped away in isolating the
predicator of a sentence do carry a certain amount of meaning. Thus the
indicators of past and present tense are clearly meaningful. The semantics of
tense is interesting, but its contribution to the meaning of a sentence is of a
different type from the contribution made by the predicator, and will not be
pursued here. Notice also that the verb be in its various forms (is, was, are, were,
am) is not the predicator in any example sentence that we have seen so far.

Practice Strip away referring expressions and the verb be (and possibly other
elements) to identify the predicators in the following sentences:
(1) I am hungry
(2) Joe is in San Francisco
(3) The Mayor is a crook
(4) The man who lives at number 10 Lee Crescent is whimsical
(5) The Royal Scottish Museum is behind Old College

Feedback (1) hungry (2) in (3) crook (4) whimsical (5) behind

Comment The predicators in sentences can be of various parts of speech: adjectives (red,
asleep, hungry, whimsical), verbs (write, stink, place), prepositions (in, between,
behind), and nouns (crook, genius). Despite the obvious syntactic differences
between these different types of words, semantically they all share the property
of being able to function as the predicators of sentences. Words of other parts
of speech, such as conjunctions (and, but, or) and articles (the, a), cannot serve
as predicators in sentences.

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PART TWO From reference . . .

The semantic analysis of simple declarative sentences reveals two major

semantic roles played by different subparts of the sentence. These are the role
of predicator, illustrated above, and the role(s) of argument(s), played by the
referring expression(s).

Example Juan is Argentinian predicator: Argentinian, argument: Juan

Juan arrested Pablo predicator: arrest, arguments: Juan, Pablo
Juan took Pablo to Rio predicator: take, arguments: Juan, Pablo, Rio

Practice In the following sentences, indicate the predicators and arguments as in the
above examples:
(1) Dennis is a menace
predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ..............................
(2) Fred showed Jane his BMW
Predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ..............................
(3) Donald is proud of his family
predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ..............................
(4) The hospital is outside the city
predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ..............................

Feedback (1) pred: menace, arg: Dennis (2) pred: show, args: Fred, Jane, his BMW
(3) pred: proud, args: Donald, his family (4) pred: outside, args: the hospital,
the city

Comment The semantic analysis of a sentence into predicator and argument(s) does
not correspond in most cases to the traditional grammatical analysis of a
sentence into subject and predicate, although there is some overlap between
the semantic and the grammatical analyses, as can be seen from the examples
above. We shall be concerned almost exclusively in this book with the
semantic analysis of sentences, and so will not make use of the notion
‘grammatical predicate (phrase)’. But we will use the term ‘predicate’ in a
semantic sense, to be defined below, developed within Logic.

Definition A PREDICATE is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single
sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence.

Example hungry, in, crook, asleep, hit, show, bottle, are all predicates; and, or, but, not,
are not predicates.

Practice Are the following predicates?

(1) dusty Yes / No
(2) drink Yes / No

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(3) woman Yes / No

(4) you Yes / No
(5) Fred Yes / No
(6) about Yes / No

Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) No (5) No (6) Yes

Comment The definition of ‘predicate’ above contained two parenthesized conditions.

The first, ‘(or sequence of words)’, is intended to take care of examples like
wait for, in front of, which are longer than one word, but which it seems
sensible to analyse as single predicates.
The second parenthesized condition, ‘(in a given single sense)’, is more
important, and illustrates a degree of abstractness in the notion of a
predicate. A ‘word’, as we use the term, can be ambiguous, i.e. can have more
than one sense, but we use ‘predicate’ in a way which does not allow a
predicate to be ambiguous. A predicate can have only one sense. Normally,
the context in which we use a word will make clear what sense (what
predicate) we have in mind, but occasionally, we shall resort to the use of
subscripts on words to distinguish between different predicates. (We do this
especially in Unit 16 ‘About dictionaries’.)

Example The word bank has (at least) two senses. Accordingly, we might speak of the
predicates bank1 and bank2.
Similarly, we might distinguish between the predicates man1 (noun)
human being, man2 (noun) male adult human being, and man3 (transitive
verb) as in The crew manned the lifeboats.

Comment Notice that ‘predicate’ and ‘predicator’ are terms of quite different sorts.
The term ‘predicate’ identifies elements in the language system,
independently of particular example sentences. Thus, it would make sense
to envisage a list of the predicates of English, as included, say, in a
dictionary. The term ‘predicator’ identifies the semantic role played by a
particular word (or group of words) in a particular sentence. In this way,
it is similar to the grammatical term ‘subject’: one can talk of the subject
of a particular sentence, but it makes no sense to talk of a list of ‘the
subjects of English’: similarly, one can talk of the ‘predicator’ in a particular
sentence, but not list ‘the predicators of English’. A simple sentence only
has one predicator, although it may well contain more than one instance
of a predicate.

Example A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon

This sentence has just one predicator, enter, but the sentence also
contains the words tall, handsome, stranger, and saloon, all of which are

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PART TWO From reference . . .

predicates, and can function as predicators in other sentences, e.g. John is

tall, He is handsome, He is a stranger, and That ramshackle building is a
saloon.

Practice (1) In which of the following sentences does the predicate male function as a
predicator? Circle your choice.
(a) The male gorilla at the zoo had a nasty accident yesterday
(b) The gorilla at the zoo is a male
(c) The gorilla at the zoo is male
(2) In which of the following sentences does the predicate human function
as predicator?
(a) All humans are mortal
(b) Socrates was human
(c) These bones are human

Feedback (1) (b), (c) (2) (b), (c)

Comment We turn now to the matter of the degree of predicates.

Definition The DEGREE of a predicate is a number indicating the number of arguments

it is normally understood to have in simple sentences.

Example Asleep is a predicate of degree one (often called a one-place predicate)

Love (verb) is a predicate of degree two (a two-place predicate)

Practice (1) Are the following sentences acceptable?

(a) Thornbury sneezed Yes / No
(b) Thornbury sneezed a handful of pepper Yes / No
(c) Thornbury sneezed his wife a handful of pepper Yes / No
(2) So is sneeze a one-place predicate? Yes / No
(3) Are the following sentences acceptable in normal usage?
(a) Martha hit Yes / No
(b) Martha hit the sideboard Yes / No
(c) Martha hit George the sideboard Yes / No
(4) So is hit a one-place predicate? Yes / No
(5) Is die a one-place predicate? Yes / No
(6) Is come a one-place predicate? Yes / No
(7) Is murder (verb) a one-place predicate? Yes / No

Feedback (1)(a) Yes (b) No (c) No (2) Yes (3) (a) No (b) Yes (c) No (4) No (5) Yes
(6) Yes (7) No

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Comment A verb that is understood most naturally with just two arguments, one as its
subject, and one as its object, is a two-place predicate.

Example In Martha hit the parrot, hit is a two-place predicate: it has an argument,
Martha, as subject and an argument, the parrot, as direct object.

Practice (1) Are the following sentences acceptable?

(a) Keith made Yes / No
(b) Keith made this toy guillotine Yes / No
(c) Keith made this toy guillotine his mother-in-law Yes / No
(2) So is make a two-place predicate? Yes / No
(3) Is murder a two-place predicate? Yes / No
(4) Is see a two-place predicate? Yes / No

Feedback (1) (a) No (b) Yes (c) No (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes

Comment There are a few three-place predicates; the verb give is the best example.

Practice For each of the following sentences, say whether it seems somewhat elliptical
(i.e. seems to omit something that one would normally expect to be
mentioned). Some of these sentences are more acceptable than others.
(1) Herod gave Yes / No
(2) Herod gave Salome Yes / No
(3) Herod gave a nice present Yes / No
(4) Herod gave Salome a nice present Yes / No
(5) How many referring expressions are there in Sentence (4) .............

Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes: one would normally mention the receiver of a
present. (4) No (5) three

Comment We have concentrated so far on predicates that happen to be verbs. Recall

examples such as Cairo is in Africa, Cairo is dusty, Cairo is a large city. In these
examples in (a preposition), dusty (an adjective), and city (a noun) are
predicates.
In the case of prepositions, nouns, and adjectives, we can also talk of one-,
two-, or three-place predicates.

Practice (1) How many referring expressions are there in

Your marble is under my chair? .............
(2) Is Your marble is under acceptable in normal usage? Yes / No
(3) Is Your marble is under my chair the carpet acceptable
in normal usage? Yes / No

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PART TWO From reference . . .

(4) So, of what degree is the predicate under (i.e. a how-many-

place-predicate is under)? .............
(5) Of what degree is the predicate near? .............
(6) Is Dundee is between Aberdeen acceptable? Yes / No
(7) Is Dundee is between Aberdeen and Edinburgh acceptable? Yes / No
(8) Of what degree is the predicate between? .............

Feedback (1) two (2) No (3) No (4) two (5) two (6) No (7) Yes (8) three

Comment We will now turn our attention to adjectives.

Practice (1) How many referring expressions are there in

Philip is handsome? .............
(2) Is Philip is handsome John (not used when
addressing John) acceptable? Yes / No
(3) Of what degree is the predicate handsome? .............
(4) Of what degree is the predicate rotten? .............
(5) Of what degree is the predicate smelly? .............

Feedback (1) one (2) No (3) one (4) one (5) one

Comment In fact, the majority of adjectives are one-place predicates.

Practice (1) Is John is afraid of Fido acceptable? Yes / No

(2) Does John is afraid seem elliptical
(i.e. does it seem to leave something unmentioned)? Yes / No
(3) Could afraid be called a two-place predicate? Yes / No
(4) Is Your house is different from mine acceptable? Yes / No
(5) Does Your house is different seem elliptical? Yes / No
(6) Of what degree is the predicate different? .............
(7) Of what degree is the predicate identical? .............
(8) Of what degree is the predicate similar? .............

Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes (5) Yes (6) two (7) two (8) two

Comment You may have wondered about the role of the prepositions such as of and
from in afraid of and different from. These prepositions are not themselves
predicates. Some adjectives in English just require (grammatically) to be
joined to a following argument by a preposition. Such prepositions are
relatively meaningless linking particles. You might want to think of the
combination of adjective plus linking particle in these cases as a kind of

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complex or multi-word predicate with basically one unified meaning. Notice

that one can often use different linking prepositions with no change of
meaning, e.g. (in some dialects) different to, or even different than.

We now turn to predicates which are nouns.

Practice (1) How many referring expressions are there in

John is a corporal? .............
(2) Is John is a corporal the army acceptable? Yes / No
(3) Of what degree is corporal? .............
(4) Of what degree is hero? .............
(5) Of what degree is crook? .............
(6) How many referring expressions are there in
This object is a pitchfork? .............
(7) Of what degree is pitchfork? .............

Feedback (1) one (2) No (3) one (4) one (5) one (6) one (7) one

Comment Most nouns are one-place predicates. But a few nouns could be
said to be ‘inherently relational’. These are nouns such as father,
son, brother, mother, daughter, neighbour.

Practice (1) Does John is a brother seem somewhat odd? Yes / No

(2) Is John is a brother of the Mayor of Miami acceptable? Yes / No
(3) Could brother be called a two-place predicate? Yes / No
(4) Could sister be called a two-place predicate? Yes / No

Feedback (1) Yes, it would be completely acceptable only in a somewhat unusual

context. (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes

Comment Sometimes two predicates can have nearly, if not exactly, the same sense, but
be of different grammatical parts of speech. Typically in these cases the
corresponding predicates have the same degree, as in the following examples.
See if you can determine the degree of the predicates in these sentences.

Example Ronald is foolish, Ronald is a fool

Timothy is afraid of cats, Timothy fears cats
My parrot is a talker, My parrot talks

Comment We conclude this unit by discussing one special relation, the identity relation.
This is the relation found in equative sentences (Unit 4, p. 42). In English, the
identity of the referents of two different referring expressions is expressed by
a form of the verb be.

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PART TWO From reference . . .

Example George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States

The 43rd President of the United States is George W. Bush

Practice All of the following sentences contain a variant of the verb be. In which
sentences does a form of be express the identity relation? Circle your choices.
(1) This is a spider
(2) This is my father
(3) This is the person I was telling you about at dinner last night
(4) The person I was telling you about at dinner last night is in the next room
(5) The person I was telling you about at dinner last night is the man
talking to Harry
(6) The whale is a mammal

Feedback The identity relation is expressed by a form of be in sentences (2), (3),

and (5).

Comment The identity relation is special because of its very basic role in the
communication of information. In English, one must analyse some instances
of the verb be (e.g. those in sentences (2), (3), (5) above) as instances of the
identity predicate. Other instances of the verb be, as we have seen, are simply
a grammatical device for linking a predicate that is not a verb (i.e. an
adjective, preposition, or noun) to its first argument, as in John is a fool or
John is foolish. The verb be is also a device for ‘carrying’ the tense (present or
past) of a sentence.

Summary The predicates of a language have a completely different function from the
referring expressions. The roles of these two kinds of meaning-bearing
element cannot be exchanged. Thus John is a bachelor makes good sense,
but Bachelor is a John makes no sense at all. Predicates include words from
various parts of speech, e.g. common nouns, adjectives, prepositions, and
verbs. We have distinguished between predicates of different degrees (one-
place, two-place, etc.). The relationship between referring expressions and
predicates will be explored further in the next unit.

Unit 5 Study Guide and Exercises

Directions After you have read Unit 5 you should be able to tackle the following
questions to test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit.
1 You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit:
predicator degree of a predicate
predicate ellipsis (elliptical)
argument identity relation

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2 Indicate the arguments and predicator(s) in each sentence.

a John is a linguist
b John loves Mary
c Mary loves John (Are arguments ordered?)
d John gave Mary a ring
e Chicago is between Los Angeles and New York
f Jane is Mary’s mother
g Jones is the Dean of the College
h John stood near the bank
(How should the ambiguity be handled?)
i Ed is a fool
j Ed is foolish
3 Indicate the degree of the predicates used as predicators in each sentence in
item 2 above.
4 How does the concept of predicate in the semantic sense differ from the
concept of grammatical predicate? Does one seem to be more revealing
than the other?
5 In this unit we said that the prepositions from and of in the two-part
adjectives different from and afraid of ‘are not themselves predicates . . .
(and that they) are relatively meaningless linking particles’. Do you agree
with this statement? Consider a sentence such as The letter is from my uncle
before reaching a conclusion.
6 What are the functions of the verb be in these sentences (i.e. does it
function as an identity predicate or as a grammatical device for linking a
non-verbal predicate to its first argument)? Do all instances of be carry
tense?
a Mary is happy
b A tulip is a flower
c George W. Bush is the US President
d God is
7 Does it make sense to say that the verb be has a meaning of its own,
independent of whether it is used as a linking device or as the identity
predicate? Speculate about what it could mean, and don’t be concerned if
your answer is quite abstract. Many lexical items in the world’s languages
have very abstract meanings.

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