English copular predicates #

This file defines the English predicates of the form be + adjective that embed a clause: the emotive factive annoyed (that p) and the veridical non-factive right (that p), which entails its complement without presupposing it, both from Degen and Tonhauser's projection experiments, and able (to VP), which Karttunen lists among the positive verbs that are implicative by default but admit the weaker presupposition of a necessary condition only, so that its negation entails the negation of the complement while its affirmative need not entail the complement. The adjectives are ClauseEmbeddingAdjective entries, and the copular verbs are their realization with be.

Main definitions #

English.Verbs.Copular.annoyed, English.Verbs.Copular.right, English.Verbs.Copular.able: the adjectives.
English.Verbs.Copular.beAnnoyed, English.Verbs.Copular.beRight, English.Verbs.Copular.beAble: the copular verbs.

References #

source

def English.Verbs.Copular.annoyed :

ClauseEmbeddingAdjective

annoyed (that p), an emotive factive adjective.

Equations

English.Verbs.Copular.annoyed = { form := "annoyed", factivity := some Presupposition.Factivity.full }

Instances For

source

def English.Verbs.Copular.right :

ClauseEmbeddingAdjective

right (that p), a veridical non-factive adjective, which entails its complement without presupposing it.

Equations

English.Verbs.Copular.right = { form := "right" }

Instances For

source

def English.Verbs.Copular.able :

ClauseEmbeddingAdjective

able (to VP), a subject-control adjective among the positive verbs of [Kar71a] that are implicative by default but admit the weaker presupposition of a necessary condition only: John wasn't able to come entails that he did not come, while John was able to come need not entail that he came. It is the counterpart of the one-way Finnish pystyä ([Nad23b]). The entailment of the affirmative on its actualized reading is the actuality entailment of ability, which [Nad23a] derives from aspect rather than from the lexicon: able presupposes an action causally necessary and sufficient for the complement and asserts only the subject's capacity for it, a stative that perfective aspect coerces into an instance of the action (Proposal (7.10), §7.2).

Equations