Small Clause A Note On its Category

Abstract

#Stowell (1983) considers small clause a projection of the lexical head of its predicate. His claim is based on the argument that a verb subcategorizes for a constituent and that it is insensitive to a sub-constituent of its sub-categorized constituent. But when we closely examine the sub-categorization feature of a verb we find that it may, at times, if not always, be sensitive to a sub-constituent of its sub-categorized constituent. This feature of the verb invalidates Stowell's arguments and hence a small clause should not be labelled as a PP or an NP or a VP depending on the categorial label of the head of the predicate of the small clause.