Cover not available
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
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.17.1.05oxf
References (30)
Adamson, Sylvia
2000 A lovely little example: Word order options and category shift in the premodifying string. In Olga Fischer, Anette Rosenbach & Dieter Stein (eds.), Pathways of change: Grammaticalization in English, 39–66. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alrenga, Peter
2007 Dimensions in the semantics of comparatives. Santa Cruz, CA: UC Santa Cruz dissertation.Google Scholar
2010 Comparisons of similarity and difference. In Patricia Cabredo Hofherr & Ora Matusansky (eds.), Adjectives: Formal analyses in syntax and semantics, 155–186. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
“
another, adj. and pron. (and adv.).” OED Online. Oxford University Press 2014.Google Scholar
Beck, Sigrid
2000 The semantics of different: Comparison operator and relational adjective. Linguistics and Philosophy 231. 101–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brasoveanu, Adrian
2008 Sentence-internal readings of same/different as quantifier-internal anaphora. West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL) 271. 72–80.Google Scholar
Breban, Tine
2003 The grammaticalization of the adjectives of identity and difference in English and Dutch. Languages in Contrast 41. 167–201.Google Scholar
2006 English adjectives of comparison: Lexical and grammaticalized uses. Leuven, Belgium: University of Leuven dissertation.Google Scholar
2008 Grammaticalization, subjectification and leftward movement of English adjectives of difference in the noun phrase. Folia Linguistica 421. 259–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 Structural persistence: A case based on the grammaticalization of English adjectives of difference. English Language and Linguistics 131. 77–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 English adjectives of comparison: Lexical and grammatical uses (Topics in English Linguistics 63). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
2005 Deriving Greenberg’s Universal 20 and its exceptions. Linguistic Inquiry 361. 315–332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Corver, Norbert
1997 The internal syntax of the Dutch extended adjectival projection. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 151. 289–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
“
different, adj., n., and adv.” OED Online. Oxford University Press 2014.Google Scholar
Heim, Irene
1985 Notes on comparatives and related matters. Ms., University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey K. Pullum
2002 The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kayne, Richard S.
2005 Some notes on comparative syntax, with special reference to English and French. In Guglielmo Cinque & Richard S. Kayne (eds.), The Oxford handbook of comparative syntax, 3–69. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Christopher & Louise McNally
2005 Scale structure and the semantic typology of gradable predicates. Language 811. 345–381. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Ruth
2010 The Amharic definite marker and the syntax-morphology interface. Syntax 131. 196–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laca, Brenda & Liliane Tasmowski
2003 From non-identity to plurality: French différent as an adjective and as a determiner. In Josep Quer, Jan Schroten, Mauro Scorretti, Petra Sleeman & Els Verheugd (eds.), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2001: Selected papers from Going Romance, 155–176. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Différents. In Francis Corblin & Henriëtte de Swart (eds.), Handbook of French semantics, 109–118. Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
“
other, adj., pron., and n., and adv. 1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press 2014.Google Scholar
Piggott and Newell
2006 Syllabification and the spell-out of phases in Ojibwa words. In Eva Dobler & Yukio Furukawa (eds.), McGill working papers in linguistics 20(2). 39–64.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik
1985 A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian & Anna Roussou
2003 Syntactic change: A Minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
“
same, adj., pron., and adv.” OED Online. Oxford University Press 2014.Google Scholar
Svenonius, Peter & Christopher Kennedy
2006 Northern Norwegian degree questions and the syntax of measurement. In Mara Frascarelli (ed.), Phases of interpretation, 129–157. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tovena, Lucia M. & Marleen Van Peteghem
2006 La place de différents dans le syntagme nominal et les déterminants. In Francis Corblin, Sylvie Ferrando & Lucien Kupferman (eds.), Indéfini et prédication, 449–460. Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne.Google Scholar
White, Jonathan R.
1997 Result clauses and the structure of degree phrases. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 91.Google Scholar
2004 Syntactic autonomy and result clauses. The Department of English in Lund: Working Papers in Linguistics 41. 93–120.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by 1 other publications

Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan
2019. Word-internal modification: The case of the Persian comparative marker. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 64:1 ► pp. 138 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.