[b-greek] Re: Nominative in Appositon

From: c stirling bartholomew (cc.constantine@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Jul 04 2001 - 15:19:31 EDT


on 7/4/01 11:12 AM, Randy Leedy wrote:
Randy,

Nice work!

(Is "Nice work!" a verbless clause or simply an appositive that predicates?)

> You ask, "When an appositive is used to predicate but does not really
> form an independent clause, what do we call it?" My answer: an
> appositive. Can you give me an example of an appositive that does NOT
> predicate at all?

No, I cannot.

>My provisional model (not that I've ever tried to construct
> one before) would look something like this: "predication" could serve
> as a valid term encompassing the whole range of grammatical
> constructions conveying an implicit or explicit assertion that one
> entity is or does something. But "predicate nominative" in its
> time-honored usage represents a legitimate subcategory in which the
> predication is equative in nature (as opposed to being an event), is
> explicit, and uses a linguistic formulation that can be taken as a
> complete clause, without back-transformation into an underlying
> semantic kernel.

Sounds good. Subordinating the "predicate nominative" to a high order
category of "predication" makes sense but it must be incorporated into the
whole syntax model and that is the rub. I need to have a simple, clear,
understandable syntax model that will work for explaining the syntax and
semantics of the case system. And your suggestion doesn't fit into any of
the "off the shelf" analytical models that are at hand. The "off the shelf"
models make the "predicate nominative" and "nominative of apposition"
elements of the same set. They cannot be elements of the same set if the
predicate nominative is in apposition (a statement from a scholar who
responded off list) and if all appositional constituents predicate. I
understand what you are saying and agree with it but the problem has to be
solved within the context of the whole model and that is where I am somewhat
at a loss for a solution.

Thanks again you have made a major contribution to clarifying the issue,

Clay

--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062



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