Predikati

Predikati is a term used in many Slavic-language grammars (and their translations) to refer to what in English is called the predicate of a sentence. The predicate is the part of a clause that asserts something about the subject and encodes action, event, state, or relation. It can consist of a verb or verb phrase and may include auxiliary verbs, modals, negation, and, in some languages, a predicative complement.

Types and structure

- Verbal predicate: centered on a main verb or verb phrase that expresses action or process. Example: The dog barked loudly. Here the predicate is barked loudly.

- Non-verbal or predicative-nominal predicate: expresses a state or property with a noun, adjective, or participle, often with a copula or, in languages that omit the copula, by juxtaposition. Example: The sky is blue; in a zero-copula language, a similar predication might appear without an explicit linking word.

- Compound or complex predicate: includes auxiliaries, tense, aspect, or modality, such as has been reading or will go.

Predicative complements

Some predicates are followed by a predicative complement—an adjective, noun, or participle that completes the meaning of the subject after a copula or verb of becoming. Example: The book seems interesting, where interesting functions as the predicative complement.

Function and cross-linguistic variation

The predicate, together with its arguments (subject, objects, and complements), expresses who does what to whom and under what conditions. Languages vary in copula presence, word order, and how predicatives agree with the subject. The term predikati is widely used in Slavic grammars to denote this grammatical category, reflecting both universal and language-specific patterns of predication.