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Article published In:
Syntactic Variation and Change
Edited by David Håkansson, Ida Larsson and Erik Magnusson Petzell
[Linguistic Variation 17:1] 2017
► pp. 98–110

Variation and change in the Degree Phrase

| University of Manitoba
This squib investigates syntactic variation and change in the Degree Phrase (DegP) using three modifiers in the semantic field of ‘different’ as a case study: English different and other and French différent. The squib makes two main claims. The synchronic claim is that these modifiers display extensive microsyntactic variation, spanning a range of positions from A in the DegP to D in the DP. The diachronic claim is that items in this class display a tendency to move to higher syntactic positions in a way that is familiar from better-studied syntactic domains. Data from the DegP is thus compatible with, and useful for, generative theories of syntactic variation and change.
Keywords: adjectives, comparatives, degree words, postdeterminers, syntactic change, grammaticalization, English, different , other
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Different
    • 2.1Complement selection
    • 2.2Comparative and superlative forms
    • 2.3Diachronic development
  • 3.Other
    • 3.1Synchronic status
    • 3.2Diachronic development
  • 4. Différent
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 June 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.17.1.05oxf
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