UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION TO
ENGLISH SEMANTICS
For 3rd year Student

Chapter 5

2019
UNIT 5 Arguments & Predicator: 2 kinds of meaning-bearing
elements:

A. Referring expressions and the remainder in a

declarative sentence

Tom is eating an ice-cream.

R.E REMAINDER R.E

B. Predicator

is eating

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 B. Predicator:
I. Def. P. 44
II. Characteristics:
What can be predicator in a sentence?
- To be and various parts of speech:
- Conjunctions, articles cannot be predicators
III. Two major semantic roles played by different
subparts of the sentence:
Linguistic realization Referring expression Predicate
Semantic role Argument Predicator

Arguments and Predicator

C. Predicate:
I. Def. P. 46
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 II. Word vs Predicate
1. Word may have more than one sense and
cause ambiguity
2. Predicate can have only one sense which is
made clear in the context
III. Predicate vs Predicator
1. Predicate identifies elements in the language
system, independently of particular example
sentences, e.g. in a dictionary
2. Predicator: identifies the semantic role played
by a particular word in a particular sentence
A simple sentence has one predicator, although
it may contain more than one instance of a
predicate, e.g. a tall, handsome stranger
entered
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the saloon. 4
 Why predicate?
S1 Weight
Heavy (word) S2 Intensity ambiguity

S3 Force
Heavy (predicate)
He gave me a heavy load. Instances
He threw at me his heavy blow. of
He suffered a lot with the heavy rain. predicates

Predicate vs Predicator
Referring expression Predicator RE S.F

A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon. S

09/16/21 Pred Pred ngu thien hung Pred
Pred Pred Lang.
5
 Does each of these sentences make sense?
Agentive Beneficiary
Who? sent me a book (argument) (argument)
Fred sent me What? Predicator
Fred sent a book to Whom? (predicate)
Fred put his book on Where? Location Affected
The semantic roles of the sentence(argument) (argument)
Fred sent me a book.
Argument Predicator Argument Argument
How many arguments are required for the predicate
send to make sense in this sentence?
Send: a three-place predicate
Predicator: main semantic role?
L.Tesniere (Actant): A sentence is like a mini stage.
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IV. Degree of predicate:
1. Def. P. 47
2. Characteristics:
Syntactic realizations of the predicates
- Two –place predicate: Mono transitive Verb
- Three-place predicate: Ditransitive verb
- adjectives, nouns, and prepositions can be
2, 3-place predicates
The majority of adjectives and nouns are one-place
predicates BUT …
- Inherently relational nouns are 2-place
predicates, e.g. brother, father, neighbour
- Such prep. as from, of in different from, afraid of
are not predicates
- Predicates of different parts of speech can have
nearly
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the same sense, e.g. fool(ish) 7
V. Identity relation
Identity relation found in equative sentences is
expressed by to be
VI. Predicates vs Referring expressions:
Basis semantic ingredients of a common type of a
simple sentence:
The referring expressions: correspond to actual
things, person…in the world.
The predicate: functioning as to describe the
specific relationship between the things,
person…referred to.
It describes how the things and /or people,
particpate in the particular situation described
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 The End of Chapter 5

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