DO THE MAIN AND SECONDARY PREDICATE ALWAYS FORM A COORDINATE STRUCTURE?

In the only monograph dedicated to secondary predicates in Croatian linguistics, Peti (1979) argues that a secondary predicate always forms a coordinate structure with the main predicate due to its syntactic independence. Following the theoretical framework of early generative grammar and the autonomous syntax hypothesis, Peti completely denies the relevance of the semantic relationship between the main and the secondary predicate in determining their syntactic position. It is our intention to show that such a rigid stance is unsustainable. There are several semantic types of secondary predicates in Croatian. Based on the model of seven syntactic and semantic criteria, we examine the extent to which the semantic relationship between the main and the secondary predicates affects or may affect the syntactic position or syntactic structure of the sentences they belong to.