postposedpredicate

Postposedpredicate is a term encountered in linguistic literature to describe a predicative element that appears after other material in the clause, often at the right edge, rather than immediately after a copular verb or the subject. The predicate can be an adjective, a predicate noun, or a subordinate clause, and its surface position is the defining feature. The notion is used primarily in discussions of information structure, topic-prominence, and cross-linguistic variation in predication. It is not a universally standardized category, and some grammars describe related phenomena as predicative enclitics, left-dislocated predication, or postnominal predication.

Functional overview

Postposedpredicates typically arise in contexts where discourse or syntactic constraints favor fronting a topic or focal element, leaving the predicative to follow after intervening material. This arrangement can serve emphasis, contrast, or stylistic effect, and may interact with case marking, pronoun clitic placement, or copula use. The exact nature of the predicate (adjective, noun phrase, or clause) and how it integrates with the surrounding syntax vary across languages.

Typology and variation

Because postposed predicates are linked to discourse strategies and language-specific syntactic patterns, they appear most clearly in grammars that treat topic-fronting, dislocation, or copular splitting as productive in a language. In many languages, standard predication remains via a closer copular construction, while postposed predicates are marginal, stylistic, or marked variants.

See also

Predication, Copula, Predicative adjective, Left dislocation, Topic-fronting.