Possession and pertinence: the meaning of have

Natural Language Semantics - Tập 17 - Trang 369-397 - 2009
Kjell Johan Sæbø1
1ILOS, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Tóm tắt

The meaning of have is notoriously difficult to define; sometimes it seems to denote possession, but often, it seems to denote nothing, only to complicate composition. This paper focuses on the cases where have embeds a small clause, proposing that all it accomplishes is abstraction, turning the small clause into a predicate. This analysis is extended to the cases where have appears to embed DPs: These objects are interpreted as small clauses as well, with implicit predicates denoting possession or—with relational nouns—nothing.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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