Responsive predicate
{{Short description|Semantics term}}
In formal semantics a responsive predicate is an embedding predicate which can take either a declarative or an interrogative complement. For instance, the English verb know is responsive as shown by the following examples.{{cite book |last= Lahiri |first= Utpal |year = 2002 |title= Questions and answers in embedded contexts | publisher= Oxford University Press}}{{cite journal |last1=Theiler |first1= Nadine |last2= Roelofsen |first2= Floris | last3=Aloni | first3=Maria|author3-link=Maria Aloni |year= 2019 |title= Picky predicates: Why believe doesn't like interrogative complements, and other puzzles |journal= Natural Language Semantics |volume= 27 |issue= 2|pages= 95–134 |doi= 10.1007/s11050-019-09152-9 |s2cid= 254873164 |doi-access= free }}{{cite journal |last1=Elliott |first1=Patrick |last2=Klinedinst |first2=Nathan | last3=Sudo |first3=Yasutada | last4=Uegaki |first4=Wataru |year=2017 |title= Predicates of relevance and theories of question embedding |url= |journal= Journal of Semantics |volume=34 |issue=3 }}
- Bill knows whether Mary left.
- Bill knows that Mary left.
Responsives are contrasted with rogatives such as wonder which can only take an interrogative complement and anti-rogatives such as believe which can only take a declarative complement.
- Bill wonders whether Mary left.
- *Bill wonders that Mary left.
- *Bill believes whether Mary left.
- Bill believes that Mary left.
Some analyses have derived these distinctions from type compatibility while others explain them in terms of particular properties of the embedding verbs and their complements.