English secondary predication: The interface between focus and argument structure

This dissertation investigates the interaction between focus and argument structure and the relationship between prosodic phonology and semantics by observing the prosodic realizations of English resultative and depictive predications. The goal of this study is to show how the theory of predication, argument structure, and focus interact to account for similarities and differences between depictive and resultative predications.; This goal is pursued primarily through a series of experiments (production and perception tests) and analyses designed to establish the interconnection between focus and argument structure.; The findings from the experiments cumulatively provide strong evidence that focus interacts with argument structure. In these experiments, production and perception depended substantially on the appropriate focus marking of accent. In other words, subjects were sensitive to the appropriateness of accentual patterns of sentences in their production and comprehension of sentences. In general, a resultative reading was obtained if the secondary subject was accented, as in other argument-head constructions, whereas a depictive reading was obtained if the secondary predicate was accented, as in other adjunct-argument constructions. This results show that the relationship between focus and accent depends at least in part on their argument structure, confirming that current focus theories about argument-head and adjunct-head structures in primary predication constructions can be extended to secondary predication constructions.; The findings also provide the evidence that the phonological phrase is crucial in determining the interaction between focus and argument structure and between focus and prosodic phonology, because the phonological phrase is not only a prosodic unit but also a semantic unit that reflects argument structure. In resultative predications, a resultative predicate, forming a complex predicate with a main verb, tends to be integrated into the phonological phrase consisting of an argument (direct object) and a head. On the other hand, in depictive predications, a depictive predicate tends to form an independent phonological phrase without being integrated into the phonological phrase that consists of an argument (direct object) and a head.; Consequently, I argue that the argument structure of resultative and depictive predications interacts with accentual focus structure, and the correlation between semantics and prosodic phonology is maximally transparent by the notion of the phonological phrase.