Il ne faut pas se laisser tromper par la langue : entre syntaxe et sémantique

In this article, Beata Śmigielska describes the questions used to determine the number and nature of arguments of predicates within the framework of Stanisław Karolak’s semantics-based grammar. Since syntactic structures do not directly reflect the semantic structures of predicates, the distinction between arguments and adjunct elements (modifiers) often becomes problematic. This fact is related to the lack of a single methodology by which this can be done in a simple and unambiguous way, resulting in different results of analyses of the same predicates. To solve this problem, it is necessary clearly to define the theory within which we work, because it is the adopted perspective and its well-defined principles that will decide both the path of thought during the research and its results. In her analyses of the selected predicates, Śmigielska defines the tools that can be used in predicate description such as the semantic decomposition of predicates into simpler elements, supplemented, where necessary, by contradiction tests and paraphrasing.