Predication and argument realization

Abstract This chapter analyses predication and argument realization in existentials and other there sentences. After testing against the dialect findings the hypothesis that existentials are locatives and the alternative view that the existential pivot is the predicate of existential constructions, the former analysis is ruled out and the latter adopted. The chapter draws a distinction between existential constructions with referential and non-referential pivots, and advances a proposal on predication and argument realization in each of these existential types. While the pivot is the predicate in both cases, it is proposed here that referential pivots take an argument position in the semantics of the construction, which explains why they exhibit patterns of argument behaviour. The chapter then revisits the key insight of the locative hypothesis, making an alternative proposal, which captures the relatedness of existentials and locatives. A detailed analysis of argument structure and predication in locative and presentational there sentences follows.