PREPOSITIONAL SUBJECTS AS COMPLEMENTS OF ADJECTIVAL PREDICATES

Sažetak: This paper discusses the functions of prepositional phrases with for and of as complements of adjectival predicates. The for phrase is usually described as a device which introduces the subject of the following infinitival verbal predicate, whereas of is assigned only a pragmatic function of facilitating the mentioning of the person being discussed. It is shown that there is no syntactic or semantic/pragmatic difference between the two prepositional phrases and that they should therefore be given identical treatment. Neither prepositional phrase exhibits any of the coding or behavioural properties of a typical subject. They introduce the NP which is the semantic argument of the following predicate, but they do not have a clear syntactic function.