A Syntax-based Analysis of Predication*

Adjectives and common nouns are currently assigned the same semantic analysis: both categories are said to denote sets of individuals (type ). We will show that this assumption is empirically inadequate and we will assume instead that adjectives denote properties (viewed as primitive entities, not as sets of individuals) instantiated in individuals, whereas (number marked) common nouns basically denote sets of individuals. Correlated with this distinction, we will propose the existence of two distinct rules of predication: (i) an entity is a member of a set of entities and (ii) a property is localized in an entity. Our analysis is based on the Aristotelian view that has become the basic postulate of property theory (Chierchia 1982,1985, Chierchia and Turner 1988, Fox 2000), namely the existence of two basic types of entities: individuals and properties or, as Chierchia puts it, 'predicable and non predicable individuals'. Our empirical investigation will cover a wide range of phenomena: (i) the different syntactic distribution of adjectives, bare NPs, and Number Phrases (NumPs); (ii) the contrast between ce and il/elle 'he/she' in French; (iii) the behavior of names of profession in Romance copula sentences, which will be extended to bare NPs of the type fils d’avocat 'son of lawyer' and ami (avec Pierre) 'friend (with Pierre)'; (iv) the contrast between bare plurals and bare singulars.