Sentences at basic level have two parts: subject and predicate. When a predicate carries a verb or verb + an object, it is called verbal predicate. When it carries a linking verb + an adjective/ noun it is called adjectival predicate. According to Dryer (2007), since English treats adjectives as a distinct word class, the adjectival predicates are nonverbal. The use of adjectival predicates in writing is a hard task for the learning writers because they are not commonly capable to produce this construction. Hence, they cannot handle the truth value of adjectives in respect of specific contexts.
1. Arguments and Themes of Adjectival Predicates
Arguments are entities that adjectival predicates require for the completion of their meaning. When an adjectival predicate takes one argument, the argument may function as an experiencer or a theme. On the other hand, when it takes two arguments, one stays as an experiencer and the other as a theme (https://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/322/.predicate.adj.htm). For example:
a. This building is damaged.
b. This river is big.
c. Sharif is tired of city life.
In example (a), the adjective damaged carries one argument (building, which is an experiencer). In (b), the adjective big carries one argument (river, which is a theme or property bearer). In (c), the adjective tired takes two arguments, i.e. Sharif as an experiencer (subject) and city life as a theme.
2. Predicate-Argument Structure
A predicative adjective/noun can take two modifiers and stay as a predicate-argument structure. For example:
a. This house is very costly for me to purchase.
b. It is a very hard for me to purchase this house.
In the examples given above, the green parts of sentences are predicates. PPs and to NPs are modifiers of predicates and entities indicated in bold serve as the arguments of the predicates.
3. Explicit and Implicit Arguments of Adjectival Predicates
Arguments taken by an adjective can be explicit, i.e., physically present or implicit. The arguments that are implicit are not physically present but can be understood from the physical or textual context. For example:
a. The speaker is proficient.
b. After the sunset, she became afraid.
c. It was rash of Nadeem to shout in the meeting.
d. It was rash to shout in the meeting.
In example (a) the argument indicated in bold is explicit. In (b), the argument of afraid i.e., ‘of the unknown’ is implicit. In (c), of NP (i.e., of Nadeem) is explicit and in (d), it is implicit, i.e. it is specifiable on the basis of the context.
3.1 Nominalized and Propositional Arguments
Arguments can stay in the form of a nominalized property (i.e., a verb phrase turned into a nominal phrase) or a proposition (Ikeya, 1995). For example:
a. Hosting guests in week days is not easy for me. [nominalization]
b. It is/was/would be very hard to stay in desert in summer. [proposition]
4. Predicative Adjectives with two Arguments
Some predicative adjectives such as similar to, parallel to, different from, equivalent to, worried about, fond of, etc. function like transitive verbs in sentences. These predicative adjectives require subject (experiencer or entity) and a complement (the theme or affected entity) for the completion of their meaning. For example:
a. He was worried about the coming hot weather.
b. The minister is certain that the oil prices will come down soon.
Arguments in example (a), are He and hot weather and in (b) the minister and oil prices.
5. Predicate Modifiers
Some arguments are not modifiers (specifiers) of the adjectives in predicative construction. They are predicate modifiers (i.e., domain modifiers or relational arguments), in the form of thematic dimension. It means they instead of changing the intensity of adjective, provide context to the adjective for the purpose of restricting its truth value to a specific context only. For example:
a. He is good at gossip.
b. She is graciousin spirit.
c. Raheem is blind of one eye.
In example (a), goodness is restricted to gossip only, in (b) graciousness to spirit only, and in (c), blindness to one eye.
6. Supplementary Determination of a Predicative Adjective or a Noun
The writers need to specify predicative adjectives or nouns so that their readers can understand them fully. This task is performed either through the addition of a prepositional phrase, e.g., for NP or an infinitive (Ikeya, 1995). For example:
a. Nasim is hard to convince.
b. Convincing Nasim is hard for me.
The example (a) does not give meaning that Nasim is hard in general. Similarly, the example (b) also does not indicate that Nasim is hard in general. It can be said that Nasim is commonly soft but in certain cases it is difficult to convince him. In these constructions to VP and for NP do the function of specifying how the predicate hard is true.
7. Tough Adjectival Predicates
When a predicative adjective is not followed by a prepositional phrase and infinitive, it is known as simple adjectival predicate (e.g., He is intelligent.). If it is followed by a PP or infinitive or both, it is known as a tough adjectival predicate (Ikeya, 1995). In this construction, two elements, i.e. prepositional phrase and infinitive stay as predicate modifiers or specifiers. For example:
a. These rules are very difficult for me.
b. These rules are very difficult to observe.
c. These rules are very difficult for me to observe.
8. Predicative Adjectives that obligatorily take PP or that clause or to VP
The predicative adjectives that obligatorily take PP or that clause or to VP are the ones whose meanings are not complete without these complements (Ikeya, 1995). Adjectives that take of ppinclude fond, afraid, guilty, capable, proud, worthy, etc. Similarly, adjectives that take to NP are: addicted, similar, reluctant, eager, etc. The adjectives that take that clause are: happy, important, certain, surprised, desirous, etc. For example:
a. Arshad’s performance is worthy of acknowledgement.
b. He is eager to work in Armco.
c. It is important that employees meet deadlines.
9. Role of NP in of NP and for NP
Nouns present in of NP prepositional phrase play the role of an agent (performer) and in for NP that of an experiencer or beneficiary. Syntactically both these roles are called thematic roles. On the other hand, when of NP and for NP are seen as constructions that modify or specify the meaning of the predicate denoted by the related adjective, their role is termed as semantic function. For example:
a. The children are happy of this snow fall.
b. These regulations are hard for the employees.
In example (a) the children are agents (performers) and in (b) the employees are experiencers.
The predicative constructions with of NP can take the form of constructions in which agent or experiencer can take the position of subject in place of it. For example:
a. It was rash of Nadeem to shout in the meeting.
b. Nadeem was rash to shout in the meeting.
10. Adjectives that make one-position predicates
Some adjectives have such a nature that they mostly stay after linking verb (i.e., is/are/am, seem, appear, etc.) in a predicative construction. Their argument may be an entity, or nominalized property (Ikeya,1995). For example:
a. He is rustic – expect simplicity from him.
b. Naeem was rustic at making decisions.
In example (a) the argument of ‘rustic predicate’ is simplicity i.e., an entity and in (b), it is a nominalized property.
11. Adjectives that make multiple-positions predicates
There are some adjectives that stay at multiple positions in predicate constructions (Ikeya, 1995). For example:
a. Online-business is beneficial.
b. The online transactions can be beneficial for you.
c. The big cities are beneficial to reside in.
d. It is beneficial that so many people have doctorate degrees.
In example (a), the argument (online-business) of predicate adjective (beneficial) is an entity. In (b), the argument (the online transactions + for NP) of the predicate adjective (beneficial) is a nominalized property. Likewise, in (c), the argument (the big cities + to VP) of the predicate is an entity and in (d), the argument (that…) of the predicate is a proposition.
12. Commenting Role of Predicative Adjectives
There is a category of adjectives (e.g. odd, peculiar, weird, crazy, ridiculous, absurd, typical, strange, fashionable, rare, just, logical, etc.) that stay in “it part of a sentence” and play the role of commenting on the sentence’s action or state (Ikeya,1995). For example:
a. It is strange for Shaheen to stay in bed till noon.
b. It is strange of Shahid to travel to deserts.
In example (a), Shaheen is recipient and in (b) Shahid is an actor.
In sum, adjectival predicates carry various components, i.e., arguments and themes for the purpose of their structure. Mostly arguments are explicit, but at times they are implicit. Further, arguments may also be present in nominalized or propositional form. Next important point about adjectival predicates is their modification which may also be supplementary in nature. Further, when adjectival predicates are seen in terms of their construction, they may be simple or tough. Another important element of these predicates is that they comment on the action or state presented in the sentence. In short, the predicative adjective constructions are a great resource for writing communicative texts effectively.
Sources Cited
- Dryer, M. S. (2007). Clause types. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic Description (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 224-275). Cambridge University Press.
2. https://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/322/.predicate.adj.htm
3. Ikeya, A. (1995) Predicate-Argument Structure of English Adjectives. In Proceedings of the 10th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, pages 149–156, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
