The article focuses on the formal and semantic levels of sentence element analysis, particularly the predicate determiner and the predicate attribute. Both levels are undoubtedly important, and it is neither always easy nor necessarily meaningful to consider only one of them, as meaning and form, semantics and structure, are closely interconnected. However, especially when dealing with non-independent predicative clause elements, it makes sense to begin with the formal level (as illustrated by the sentences Janez je na zeleni veji [Janez is doing well] and Hodila je v plašču [She walked wearing a coat]), since otherwise the analysis may merely reflect the linguist’s subjective interpretations or intuitive judgments.
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