Bare Predicates. Between Syntax and Semantics

Many European languages allow nouns in post-copular position to occur without articles (eng. Obama is (a) president, nor. Per er (en) advokat). In many accounts (i.a. Zamparelli 2005, De Swart et al. 2007), the occurrence of bare predicates (BPreds) is a phenomenon that concerns the lexical class of nouns of professions and roles. More specifically, this phenomenon is often seen as the reflex of a syntactic or semantic property of the nouns collected in such lexical class. However, the meaning alternation between bare and determined predicates is more productive than originally assessed, and more complex. In Castella (2014), it is claimed that the meaning alternation between BPreds and determined predicates (DPreds) depends on the fact that the former refer to extrinsic properties and the latter to intrinsic properties. A general understanding of the intrinsic/extrinsic distinction, first introduced by Lewis (1983), is that “A property P is intrinsic iff the instantiation of P by an individual x is independent of the features of the environment of x; otherwise P is extrinsic.” Crucially, BPreds prominently involve nouns that refer to professions (e.g. advokat, selger, lærer) because they express extrinsic properties more easily than other nouns (e.g. mann, kvinne, helt). Intuitively, one is advokat when that person has obtained a certain type of title and is hired to practice that profession. In contrast, all of the above is not necessary for someone to be en advokat since DPreds are understood as describing (part of) the “real nature” of the subject, thus as properties that are intrinsic to the subject. This distinction is corroborated by the fact that a statement like eng. John has been president without ever being a president is not contradictory.