[Lingtyp] verbless predications

[Martin Haspelmath]

There is, incidentally, an interesting terminological question 
concerning what we regard as "verbless/nonverbal". What about (1) and 
(2), for example?

(1) /We have enough money./

(2) (German): /Auf dem Tisch liegt ein Buch/ [on the table lies a book] 
'There is a book on the table'

Do predpossessive sentences like (1) generally fall under "nonverbal 
predication", or only when they do not include a "verb"? Is English 
"have" a verb in this sense? But what about "copula verbs"? Aren't they 
"verbal", too?

And what should we say about existential clauses like (2) ('There is a 
book on the table'), which commonly make use of posture verbs, as in 
German? Are existential clauses sometimes "verbal" and sometimes "verbless"?

It seems to me that the best way to define terms such as "verbal 
predication", "existential clause", and "predpossessive clause" is as 
construction-functions. By contrast, the terms "copula clause" and 
"transpossessive construction" (= 'have' construction) are best defined 
as construction-strategies.

(For the contrast between construction(-function)s and 
(construction-)strategies, see Croft 2022, and my forthcoming paper: 
https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/007897)

Thus, I would say that (1) and (2) are nonverbal (in a 
comparative-concept perspective), even though from a language-particular 
viewpoint, "have" is an English Verb, and "liegen" is a German Verb.

Martin


On 08.08.24 19:30, Spike Gildea via Lingtyp wrote:

> I would also suggest:
>
> Mikkelsen, Line. 2011. Copular clauses. In Claudia Maienborn, Klaus 
> von Heusinger, and Paul Portner (eds.) /Semantics: An International 
> Handbook of Natural Language Meaning,/ volume 2, 1805–1829. Berlin: 
> Mouton de Gruyter.
>
> Overall, Simon, Rosa Vallejos, & Spike Gildea. 2018. Non-verbal 
> predication in Amazonian languages: Introduction. /Nonverbal 
> predication in Amazonian Languages/, ed. by Simon Overall, Rosa 
> Vallejos, & Spike Gildea, 1-49. Typological Studies in Language. 
> Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
>
> Pustet, Regina. 2003. /Copulas: Universals in the categorization of 
> the lexicon/. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
>
> And especially:
>
> Stassen, Leon. 1997. /Intransitive Predication/. Oxford: OUP.
>
> Best,
>
> Spike
>
> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf 
> of Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Date: *Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 1:49 PM
> *To: *lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org 
> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [Lingtyp] verbless predications
>
> Dear Sergey,
>
> here are some references for nominal clauses:
>
> Clairis, Christos & Chamoreau, Claudine & Costaouec, Denis & Guérin, 
> Françoise (eds.) 2005, /Typologie de la syntaxe connective./ Rennes: 
> Presses Universitaires de Rennes (Rivages linguistiques).
>
> Hengeveld, Kees 1990, "Semantic relations in non-verbal predications." 
> Nuyts, Jan & Bolkestein, A. Machtelt & Vet, Co (eds.), /Layers and 
> levels of representation in language theory. A functional view./ 
> Amsterdam & Philadelphia: J. Benjamins; 101-122.
>
> Hengeveld, Kees 1992, /Non-verbal predication. Theory, typology, 
> diachrony./ Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
>
> Levin, Saul 1978, "Predication through an obligatory copulative verb." 
> /LACUS/ 5:503-509.
>
> Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A. 1977, "A mechanism for the 
> development of copula morphemes." Li, Charles N. (ed.), /Mechanisms of 
> syntactic change./ Austin & London: University of Texas Press; 419-444.
>
> Penner, Zvi 1988, /The grammar of the nominal sentence. A 
> government-binding approach./ Bern: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft 
> der Universität (Arbeitspapier, 24).
>
> Pernée, Lucien 1985, "La relation prédicative en grec: phrase nominale 
> et verbe être." /Travaux du Cercle Linguistique d'Aix-en-Provence/ 
> 3:61-75.
>
> Rapoport, Tova R. 1987, /Copular, nominal and small clauses. A study 
> of Israeli Hebrew./ Cambridge: MIT, Department of Linguistics & 
> Philosophy (Unpubl. PhD dissertation).
>
> Vapnarsky, Valentina 2013, "Is Yucatec Maya an omnipredicative 
> language? Predication, the copula and focus constructions." 
> /Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung/ 66:40-86.
>
> Wetzer, Harrie 1992, "`Nouny' and `verby' adjectivals: a typology of 
> predicative adjectival constructions." Kefer, Michel & Van der Auwera 
> (eds.), /Meaning and grammar. Cross-linguistic perspectives./ Berlin & 
> New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Empirical Approaches to Language 
> Typology, 10); 223-262.
>
> Wetzer, Harrie 1996, /The typology of adjectival predication./ Berlin 
> & New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Empirical Approaches to Language 
> Typology, 17).
>
> A topic different from this one are clauses which are missing their 
> verb. This is treated for Latin in
>
> Carvalho, Paulo de 1978, "Syntaxe et sémantique: verbe et phrase en 
> latin." /Revue des Études Anciennes/ 80:239-247.
>
> and for Russian in
>
> Wiemer, Björn 1996, "Klassifikacija nulevyx skazujemyx v russkom 
> jazyke po ix leksičeskim i referencial'nym xarakteristikam." /Studia z 
> Filologii Polskiej i Słowańskiej/ 33:245-273.
>
> Best,
>
> Christian
>
>
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-- 
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/
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