The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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4.4.3.2 The Locative/non-Locative distinction: Hebrew present tense copular
constructions do not include a verb (97a) (Rubinstein 1968; Ben-David 1971; Doron
1983; Rapoport 1987; Rothstein 1995; Shlonsky 1997). They may, however, include the
so-called ‘pronominal copula’ termed by Doron (1983) Pron (97b):
(97) a. bart nexmad
Bart nice
b. bart hu nexmad
Bart he nice
“Bart is nice.”
It has been noted in traditional grammars (Rubinstein 1968, Ben-David 1971) and
further developed in Greenberg (1994), that the presence or the absence of Pron
correlates with a semantic distinction which can be described in terms of stage- and
individual-level predicates. A stage-level predicate denotes a temporary property, such
as tired or dirty, whereas an individual-level predicate denotes a permanent property of
an individual. 50 (97a) has the interpretation that ‘Bart is nice now’ (the stage-level
interpretation of nice), whereas (97b) is interpreted as ‘Bart is generally nice’
(individual level-interpretation). This distinction can be highlighted by a temporal
adverb. Such an adverb can be added naturally to (97a) resulting in (98a), but not to
(97b), as shown in (98b) (Greenberg 1994):
(98) a. bart nexmad hayom
Bart nice today
“Bart is nice today.”
b. #bart hu nexmad hayom
Bart he nice today
Consider now copular constructions with PPs:
50 The classification into individual- and stage-level predicates was proposed by Carlson (1977).