AMSA-15-0900
Author: Andrew Carnie
Title: Two Types of Non-verbal Predication in Modern Irish
Citation: appeared in: Canadian Journal of Linguistics 42(1-2): 57-74

The number of copular constructions found with non-verbal predicates in Universal Grammar has recently been a matter of some controversy. Traditional theories have claimed that there are two constructions: an equative--with two argument NPs-- and predicative--with a single argument and a non-verbal predicate. Recently this bifurcation has been challenged by authors who claim that equative constructions show asymmetries similar to those found in predicatives, and that these asymmetries are due to a simple subject/predicate distinction. They claim that there is a single predicative copular construction in natural language. In this paper, I provide syntactic evidence for the traditional semantic division between equatives and predicatives. I show that in Modern Irish, there are two word orders corresponding to the equative/predicative split and these two have distinct syntactic and semantic properties. Further, I show that the asymmetries used to argue for a single copular construction are due to simple structural conditions rather than a subject/predicate split.