The central claim of this article is that the D(avidsonian)-state vs. K(imian)-state distinction established for German and Spanish by Maienborn is of wider crosslinguistic relevance. Stage-level and individual-level secondary predicates are both viewed here as K-states as they contain only a Kimian temporal variable but no Davidsonian event variable. Secondary predicates expressing a K-state may acquire the temporary/actual property interpretation when an alternative state entailment is added to them. In such cases the functional layer of the BE-predicate contains a syntactic operator (OPalt) that can bind the Kimian temporal variable in accessible worlds. If no such entailment is added, the same temporal variable is bound by the T0 functional head of the BE-predicate in the actual world. The auxiliary tá/bhí ‘be’ in Irish imposes the semantic restriction that its secondary predicate must contain the alternative state entailment. The copula is/ba ‘be’, on the other hand, is used in the absence of such an entailment. Case obviation on the secondary predicate head in Russian copular sentences signals alternative state entailment, while case agreement on the secondary predicate appears in the absence of this entailment.

This article investigates whether Tenetehára is a predicate-raising language. The purpose is to determine whether VSO order results from verb movement to the heads T0 or C0 only, or whether Tenetehára exhibits VP remnant movement, similarly to languages like Niuean, Choi, Malagasy, and Seediq. The analysis concludes that Tenetehára does allow predicate movement, to Spec-CP or Spec-TP. Either option depends on particles related to tense and complementation, in sentence-final position. Additionally, assuming Kayne’s antisymmetry theory, in which all movement occurs to the left, and the predicate-raising hypothesis, it is proposed that final tense particle orders are derived from the basic word order [Tense [SVO]]. To derive the fact that T0 can be head-final, the analysis holds that the predicate, represented by the v-VP complex, must move to the specifier position of TP. Finally, it is proposed that the syntactic trigger for predicate-raising is the presence of a [+PRED] feature both in the head C0 and in the head T0, a fact that explains why Tenetehára grammar systematically strands tense and complementizer particles in clause-final position.

This article presents a case study of Czech that opens the possibility of unifying various second-position phenomena as instances of an interface condition on head extension. The condition requires a head to undergo at least two instances of merge within its phase. The core of the article explores properties of T0. It is shown that any merge (external or internal, merge of a head or a phrase) yields a well-formed structure. Since it does not matter to the requirement what category merges to T0, the condition must be stated as a general requirement on what category may be the root.

This article investigates exemplars of the transitive be perfect in Canadian English, such as I am done dinner and I am finished my homework. I report on an experimental study of acceptability judgments of this construction, given by speakers of Canadian English primarily recruited from the Calgary area. I claim that the construction [be done NP] is characterized by preference for the animacy of the subject, preference for definiteness of the direct object, open-endedness of the direct object slot, and limited variability of the participle. I conclude that [be done NP] is a partially schematic construction that is close to a “prefab”.