Intransitive Predication

This book investigates cross-linguistic variation in one of the core domains of all natural languages. Leon Stassen views this domain as a ''cognitive space'' the topography of which is the same for all languages. It is assumed to consist of four subdomains which correspond to a four-way distinction between the semantic classes of event predicates property predicates class predicates and locational predicates. The book offers a typology of the structural manifestations of this domain in terms of the nature and number of the formal strategies used in its encoding. The author disusses a number of abstract principles which can be employed in explaining the cross-linguistic variation emodied by the typology. In the final chapter he brings together the research results in a universally applicable model which can be read as a ''flow-chart'' for the encoding of intransitive predications in different language types.