SEMANTICS

Unit 5: Predicates
 Entry Test
1. Whether a sentence contains any referring
expressions or not depends on the time and
place at which the sentence occurs.
Correct or Incorrect?

2. - Sam is an American. Equative?

- Sam is my supervisor’s son.
- Sam is not the person we are talking about.
- Sam is the person standing in the corner.

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 Referring expressions?
1. The cat chased the rat.
2. The kids are waiting for Santa Claus coming to
town.
3. Mahmoud is a genius.
4. The bread is stale.
5. Hue is between Danang and Quang Tri.
6. Alice is writing a letter.
7. The cherry tree has blossomed.
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 Referring expressions?
1. The cat chased the rat.
2. The kids are waiting for Santa Claus coming to
town.
3. Mahmoud is a genius.
4. The bread is stale.
5. Hue is between Danang and Quang Tri.
6. Alice is writing a letter.
7. The cherry tree has blossomed.
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 PREDICATOR
• The PREDICATOR of a simple declarative
sentence is the word (sometimes a group of
words) which does not belong to any of the
referring expressions and which, of the
remainder, makes the most specific
contribution to the meaning of the sentence.
• The predicator describes the state or process
in which the referring expressions are
involved.
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 PRACTICE
1. I’m thirsty.
2. My sister is in Los Angeles.
3. The Mayor is a liar.
4. The girl who is standing in front of the school
gate is very intelligent.
5. The cultural museum is behind the central
hospital.
6. The white man loved the Indian maiden.

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* The predicators in sentences can be of various
parts of speech: adjectives, verbs, prepositions,
and nouns.

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 SEMANTIC ROLES
- Alice is English.
- The police arrested the thief.
- Jane took her son to Cairo.
Predicator Argument(s)
(played by the referring
expressions)

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 SEMANTIC ROLES
- Alice is English.
- The police arrested the thief.
- Jane took her son to Cairo.
Predicator Argument(s)
- English - Alice
- arrest - The police, the thief
- take - Jane, her son, Cairo

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 PREDICATE (in semantic sense)
Any word (or sequence of words) which (in a
given simple sense) can function as the
predicator of a sentence.
Which of the following can be predicates?
thirsty between genius arrest or
in front of take drink behind not
intelligent but proud of show liar
dusty about woman Fred You
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thirsty between genius arrest or
in front of take drink behind not
intelligent but proud of show liar
dusty about woman Fred You

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 PREDICATOR vs. PREDICATE
ØThe term ‘predicate’ identifies elements in the
language system.
ØThe term ‘predicator’ identifies the semantic
role played by a particular word (or group of
words) in a particular sentence.
* A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon.
- Predicator:
- Predicates:
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 PREDICATOR vs. PREDICATE
E.g. A tall, handsome stranger entered the
saloon.
- Predicator: enter
- Predicates: tall, handsome, stranger, and
saloon (can function as predicators in other
sentences)
=> A simple sentence only has one predicator,
although it may well contain more than one
instance of a predicate.
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Predicates: tall, handsome, stranger, and saloon
(can function as predicators in other sentences)
E.g. - Tom is tall.
- He is handsome.
- He is a stranger.
- That building is a saloon.

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Predicates male & human function as a
predicator?
1. a) The male gorilla at the zoo had a nasty
accident yesterday.
b) The gorilla at the zoo is a male.
c) The gorilla at the zoo is male.
2. a) All humans are mortal.
b) Socrates was human.
c) These bones are human.
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 DEGREE OF A PREDICATE
- The baby is asleep.
- Tom loves Mary.
- Helen is proud of her son.
- Allen took his kids to the zoo.
• The degree of a predicate is a number
indicating the number of arguments it is
normally understood to have in simple
sentences.
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 DEGREE OF A PREDICATE
- The baby is asleep.
--> a predicate of degree one / a one-place
predicate
- Tom loves Mary. --> a two-place predicate
- Helen is proud of her son.
- Allen took his kids to the zoo.
-> take --> a three-place predicate

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 DEGREE OF A PREDICATE
• Most nouns are one-place predicate.
• ‘inherently relational’ nouns (e.g. father,
mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, etc.)
could be called a two-place predicate.
e.g. John is a brother of the Mayor of Miami.

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