The Construct PREDICATE: Empirical arguments and theoretical status

The past few years have witnessed increased attention within lexicalist frameworks such as Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) and Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) to the analysis of predicates expressed by syntactically independent pieces. The recognition of such phenomena, primarily represented in the literature by analytic or periphrastic causatives, raises central questions concerning the domain in which such complex predicates are composed. Given evidence for syntactic separability of the pieces of these predicates, is it compelling to assume that they must be formed in phrasal structure? Alternatively, are there reasons to argue that such compositions are still lexical, despite the obvious fact of surface independence for the pieces used to express these predicates? In related fashion, what would be the basis for a lexicalist perspective on such compositions and in what way would such a lexicalist approach differ from standard lexicalism?