On the Syntax and Semantics of Depictives in Turkish
Semra Baturay Meral, Hasan Mesut MeralThis paper discusses the depictive secondary predication in the Turkish language with respect to its syntax and semantics and focuses on two issues: (i) theta role assignment and (ii) checking the case of the nominal argument as either the subject or object. This study proposes that depictive secondary predication structures include a depictive predicate whose function is to modify the subject or object argument of the main verb, and the depictive predicate is an adjunct of the main predicate, unlike resultative predicates which are complements. The study also proposes the syntactic derivation of the depictive structures to be explainable under the hybrid small clause analysis, according to which the small clause adjoins to the verb phrase (VP). The subject position of the small clause is filled with a pronominal determiner phrase (PRO), which takes the theta role of the depictive predicate.