predicative
nounEtymology From predicate + -ive.
1
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences An element of the predicate of a sentence which complements the subject or object by means of the verb. Predicatives may be nominal or adjectival.
2
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences In some languages, a special part of speech used as a predicate and denoting a state of being.
- A predicative in Russian is an uninflected word that regularly constitutes a complete utterance when standing alone, i.e., when preceded and followed by silence.1957, Morton Benson, “The Problem of Predicatives in Russian”, in The Slavic and East European Journal, volume 1, number 4, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, page 285:
- Traditional grammars usually differentiate between neuter short adjectives and predicatives based on whether there is an overt nominative subject; hence курение вредно ‘smoking (noun) is harmful’ is viewed as a clause with nominative subject, zero copula and neuter short form adjective that agrees with the subject in gender, whereas курить вредно (same meaning, literally ‘to smoke is harmful’) is often viewed as an impersonal clause with predicative.2013, Sergey Say, “On the Nature of Dative Arguments in Russian Constructions with “Predicatives””, in I. Kor Chahine, editor, Current Studies in Slavic Linguistics (Studies in Language Companion Series), page 226: