Specificity, Objects and Nominal Small Clauses

This chapter argues for a particular restriction on the small clause nominal predicate and for the derivation of this restriction from ascribing to small clauses membership in a broad class of verb-modifier, complex-predicator constructions. I argue here that the restriction exhibited by the small clause predicate position is not due to the particular nature of small clause constructions or of the verb introducing them, but is part of the characterization of the position of the predicate, said position being reserved for verb modifiers, a class which includes the non-specific direct object. The small clause, then, is classified as a verb-modifier construction. The restriction on the small clause predicate is thus seen as constituting further evidence for a complex-predicator analysis of small clauses.