Chapter published in:
Approaches to Hungarian: Volume 16: Papers from the 2017 Budapest Conference
Edited by Veronika Hegedűs and Irene Vogel
[Approaches to Hungarian 16] 2020
► pp. 5–24

Non-degree equatives and reanalysis

A case study of doubling patterns in German and Hungarian

The article examines reanalysis processes underlying doubling patterns in non-degree equatives in German and Hungarian. In German, the combination als wie (lit. ‘as how’) is attested historically and in certain present-day dialects. Traditionally, it is assumed to be a mixed pattern involving the earlier canonical equative complementiser als and the later canonical equative complementiser wie; however, more recent proposals suggest that als was in fact reanalysed from the matrix clause. While matrix equative markers and equative complementisers are surface-similar in German historically, these elements are distinct in Hungarian throughout its history. Based on the results of a corpus study on Old Hungarian, the paper argues that reanalysis from the matrix clause is indeed possible and starts in non-degree equatives.
Keywords: comparatives, complementiser, degree, doubling, equatives, German, grammaticalisation, matrix equative marker, reanalysis, similatives
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The syntax of equatives
  • 3.Equatives in German
  • 4.Equatives in Old Hungarian
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 08 April 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/atoh.16.01bac
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