2 - The principles of predication coindexing

Summary

In chapter 1 we established that every predicate must have at least one role player, and that for all predicates other than those headed by N, every predicate must have precisely one external role player at SS. We singled out the external role player and labelled it the “subject role player” (where the “subject role player” for predicates headed by N is not necessarily external, however – see (1–122) and (1–129)). It then follows from the definitions of subject role player given in chapter 1 that every predicate must have a subject role player. We noted that all the role players of a predicate receive a theta role, since they are all arguments of the head of the predicate, according to the Principle of Coincidence, repeated here for convenience:

(1-46) Principle of Coincidence: The arguments of a lexical item are the role players of the predicate headed by that lexical item.

We developed the principles for theta assignment (which will be restated below as relevant examples of their application arise).

In this chapter we will develop the principles for coindexing a predicate with its subject role player (srp). Coindexing principles are common to other theories of predication. In fact, since many other theories of predication treat VPs as predicates (with internal role players being part of the predicate), the coindexing between a subject role player and its predicate is the key relationship to describe. With the definition of predicate in chapter 1, however, all role players of a predicate are semantically on an equal footing.