'Be' the One

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the semantics of be in which the verb only contains an argument position. In a sense, the function of this verb is to introduce a subject in a proposition. Different readings of the verbs are accounted for by assuming that the rules that combine the verb with other terms introduce semantic distinctions, the restrictions on what is possible being determined by the capacity of the representation constructed to relate to a situation in the world. The analysis emerges from the assumption that an adequate description of a term should not refer to contingent properties—that is, properties the term only has in specific context—a position that, when pushed to its logical conclusion, leads to articulate the sound-meaning relation in grammar in a different light than what is generally assumed in traditional frameworks.