Depictive Secondary Predicates Versus Conditional Secondary Predicates

Abstract

Previous studies have noted that there are two kinds of secondary predicates in English: depictive predicates and conditional predicates.However, a systematic analysis of the two kinds of predicates has not yet been done, and their relationship has not been made clear. In this paper, we will examine syntactic and semantic properties of these predicates and point out peculiar properties of conditional predicates. We argue that in a generic context depictive predicates can be interpreted as conditional predicates and that under the non-instantaneous framework proposed by Kajita 1977, depictive predicates in a generic context develop into conditional predicates. It will be shown that the relationship between the two kinds of predicates and the unique properties of conditional predicates automatically follow from our analysis.