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Dear Jürgen,<br>
<br>
thank you very much. On the condition that the language in question
uses two different grammatical constructions with the two classes of
predicates which you use as criterial, it seems that the procedure
that you propose would produce the distribution of these two
constructions over kinds of complement-taking verbs, subdividing
thus the set of these verbs into two subsets. However, the two
constructions in question are language-specific, so the two subsets
thus defined in one language will not coincide semantically with the
subsets produced by two constructions in another language.<br>
<br>
Moreover, I am not sure that the members of either of the categories
of superordinate predicates that you propose behave structurally in
a unified way even in one language. Salvo errore, English has <i>Linda
believes John to be mistaken</i>, but not <i>Linda doubts John to
be mistaken</i>.<br>
<br>
I had hoped that semanticists would have a semantically-based
comprehensive categorization of predicates taking a propositional
argument which would take into account the kind of entity
represented by the proposition. Putting it differently: You are
naming three categories of such predicates, cognitive attitude
predicates, phasal predicates and psych action predicates. Is there
a comprehensive classification of propositional-argument taking
predicates which comprises these three categories and possibly the
entire rest, like 'fear', 'ask', 'forget' and what not?<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Christian<br>
<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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