KEY TOPICS

• Predicate classes

• Representing semantic structure

• Semantic roles

• Macroroles

• Valency

Predicate classes

So far we have looked at morphology and syntax and the different structures found in various languages. Right from the start we saw that semantics (meaning) and syntax (structural form) are closely related: in a sense they are two sides of the same coin. We based our syntactic tree diagrams on the meaning of the sentence, using semantic terms like predicate, argument and modifier. Table 4.1 provides a reminder of the basic relationships.

In this chapter we turn our attention to the semantics side of the coin. In order to look at the relationship between syntax and semantics in more detail I divide predicates into classes, and introduce a way of representing their meaning that shows these different classes. This semantic framework helps us to talk about semantics in a more precise and useful way. We will see that the various predicate classes may be expressed differently in the syntax, and we can also learn a lot about the semantic role(s) of the participant(s) by taking predicate classes into account.