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Dear colleagues,</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">as a non-specialist
in these matters, I have always been struggling with the
distinction
between what Lyons 1977 (<i>Semantics</i>) calls second-order and
third-order entities. They are also called situations (a.k.a.
events
or states of affairs) and thoughts (or propositions), resp. A
complement clause may designate one or the other. For instance,
the
<i>that</i> clause in ex. 1 designates a situation, the one of ex.
2
designates a thought (or at any rate, a third-order entity).</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">1) Linda saw that
John arrived.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">2) Linda said that
John arrived.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">In some cases,
English grammar distinguishes these notions. For instance, the <i>that</i>
clause of ex. 1, but not the one of ex. 2, may be replaced by <i>John’s
arrival</i>.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">Besides such
relatively clear cases, there are less clear ones.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">3) Linda remembered
reading the book.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">4) Linda remembered
to read the book.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">Replacement by
<i>perusal</i> seems to show (unless my English fails me) that the
complement clause of ex. 3 designates a situation while the one of
ex. 4 designates a thought. If so, the superordinate predicate
would
not always determine the type of dependent clause.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">Here is my
question:
Does anyone know of a generally applicable criterion or even a
language-independent test frame which enables me to determine
whether
a given dependent clause designates a second-order or a
third-order
entity? Or are there contexts which are indeterminate in principle
or
where the distinction does not apply? I would be very grateful for
advice.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">Yours as always,</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm">Christian</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p style="font-size:90%">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Rudolfstr. 4<br>
99092 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span></p>
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