On the Nature of Grammatical Relations

Abstract

In this dissertation, I develop and support a theory of grammatical relations, i.e.~a theory about the connection between semantic roles and dependencies and their expressions in sentences, Grammatical relations are defined as the syntactic counterparts of certain logico-semantic relations, such as the predicate-subject and modifier-modi~iee relations.Associated with each sentence in a language is a "logico-semantic (I-a) progressed only because Noam was willing to read and discuss with me weekly installments.r would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee.Ken Hale spirited me along with his constant encouragement and enthusiasm, while Joan Bresnan, by continually disagreeing, forced me to think more deeplyÕ ther professors in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy should be acknowledged here for their starring roles in my education.Morris Halle has been guiding my linguistic