Valence disversifications: what is thetic valence?

Abstract

Unlike categoriacal sentences, thetic sentences incorporate all arguments in VP. As a consequence, thetics have no anaphoric‑topicalized DPs and in particular canonical subjects to the left of the first verbal bracket (Comp). We pursue ideas developed by Kuroda, who believes that thetics and categoricals occur directly and unambiguously in Japanese marked by the case suffixes ‑ga and ‑wa. According to these ideas, German cannot equivalently, i.e. directly mark discourse bound sentences as different from discourse unbound sentences. Thetics and categoricals are totally alike in German with respect to their discursive status. However, given that VP‑incorporated arguments map zero valence and nevertheless are fully satisfied constructions, we can speak of construction valence. We discuss sentence types that comply with VP‑internal arguments and without a deep structure of discursive status.