Polish and English specificational copular clauses

An LFG approach

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide an LFG+Glue analysis of specificational copular clauses in Polish and English (e.g., The winner is John). In the proposed account, the English construction is related to its predicational counterpart (John is the winner) at the level of s-structure: it represents an alternative mapping of s-structural arguments to grammatical functions, contributing a presupposition about the current Question Under Discussion. In Polish, the same effect arises through simple inversion at the level of c-structure, possible due to flexible word order. The second part of the paper examines the so-called pronominal copula in Polish, aiming to formalise its nuanced syntax and semantics.