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Article published In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2023
Edited by Sterre Leufkens and Marco Bril
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 40] 2023
► pp. 263–284

Degrees and manners as kinds

Evidence from Dutch equatives

| KU Leuven
| KU Leuven

We examine equative constructions in Dutch, comparing it to their counterparts in two other Germanic languages, namely English and German. We observe that there is significant variation in the morphosyntax of equative constructions based on whether what is being compared is a gradable adjective or a verb (e.g. Kim is as tall as Sue and Kim ran as Sue (did)) across the three languages and that the morphosyntax corresponds to meaning differences, determining what exactly can be compared in these constructions. Based on these observations, we propose an account for Dutch equative constructions based on eventuality kinds, which has implications for the semantics of comparison constructions in general in relation to the ontological status of degrees and manners in the grammar.

Keywords: equatives, degrees, manners, kinds, Germanic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Degrees and manners in Dutch equatives
  • 3.Previous analyses of degrees and manners across Germanic
    • 3.1English
    • 3.2German
  • 4.Degrees and manners as kinds
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 3 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00091.yu
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