Directionele PP's als predicaten (of niet)

Abstract

It is often assumed that directional (or path) prepositional phrases (PPs) can serve as predicates. I will show that this assumption is not unproblematic, by making a comparison with locative (or place) PPs, especially where we expect both to show their predicative nature most directly, namely as attributive modifiers of nouns. If directional PPs cannot always function as predicates, as I will show, then this complicates their treatment as predicates in small clause analyses. Treating them as verb modifiers is then a more attractive alternative.