Regular article
Degree modification across categories in Afrikaans
The paper presents an analysis of the Afrikaans degree modifier baie ‘very/much/many’.
Baie appears to be a single lexical item with a wide distribution in terms of the categories of gradable
predicate with which it can combine. However, the paper shows that two syntactically distinct instances of baie
should be distinguished. These instances of baie portion out the modification of different grammatical categories
between them: one, a head, exclusively modifies gradable adjectives, and the other, an adjunct, modifies the remaining categories
of gradable predicate.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical background: Types of degree expressions and scalar theta positions
- 3.
Baie is not a type C modifier
- 4.The uniqueness of adjectival degree modification
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
References
Abney, Steven P.
1987 The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. Massachusetts: MIT PhD.
Bauermeester, Eunice Marietha
2007 Die Kaapse Slawe in Kultuurhistoriese Perspektief: 1652–1838. Pretoria: University of Pretoria MA.
Berghoff, Robyn
2016 Cross-categorial degree modification in Afrikaans: An analysis of the high-degree modifier ‘baie’. Utrecht: Utrecht University MA.
Biberauer, Theresa
2002 Verb second in Afrikaans: Is this a unitary phenomenon? Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 341. 19–69.
Bolinger, Dwight
1972 Degree words. The Hague: Mouton.
Bylinina, Lisa & Yasutada Sudo
2015 Varieties of intensification.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 33(3). 881–895.
Cheshire, Jenny, Paul Kerswill, Sue Fox & Eivind Torgersen
2011 Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English.
Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2). 151–196.
Cheshire, Jenny
2013 Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun.
Journal of Sociolinguistics 17(5). 608–633.
Corver, Norbert
1990 The syntax of left branch constructions: Tilburg University PhD.
Corver, Norbert
1997a The internal syntax of the Dutch extended adjectival projection.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 151: 289–368.
Corver, Norbert
1997b Much-support as a last resort.
Linguistic Inquiry 28(1). 119–164.
Davids, Achmat
1990 Words the Cape slaves made: A socio-historical-linguistic study.
South African Journal of Linguistics 8(1). 1–24.
Davidson, Donald
1967 The logical form of action sentences. In
Nicholsa Resche (ed.)
The logic of decision and action. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Doetjes, Jenny
1997 Quantifiers and selection. Leiden: University of Leiden PhD.
Doetjes, Jenny
2008 Adjectives and degree modification. In
Louise McNally &
Christopher Kennedy (eds.),
Adverbs and adjectives: Syntax, semantics, and discourse (
Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 18), 123–155. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Doetjes, Jenny, Ad Neeleman & van de Koot, Hans
1998 Degree expressions and the autonomy of syntax. Leiden University/University College London.
Hutchinson, Amélia P. & Janet Lloyd
2003 Portuguese: An essential grammar (
Routledge Essential Grammars). New York: Routledge.
Jackendoff, Ray
1977 X-bar syntax: A study of phrase structure (
Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 2.) Cambridge (Mass): MIT Press.
Jackendoff, Ray
1991 Parts and boundaries.
Cognition 41(1). 9–45.
Kayne, Richard S.
1994 The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Kennedy, Christopher
1999 Projecting the adjective: The syntax and semantics of gradability and comparison. New York: Garland.
Matushansky, O.
2002 Tipping the scales: The syntax of scalarity in the complement of seem.
Syntax 5(3). 219–276.
McNabb, Yaron
2012 The syntax and semantics of degree modification. Chicago: University of Chicago PhD.
Neeleman, Ad, van de Koot, Hans & Jenny Doetjes
2004 Degree expressions.
Linguistic Review 211. 1–66.
Norde, Muriel
2006 Van suffix tot telwoord tot bijwoord: degrammaticalisering en (re)grammaticalisering van tig. In
TABU 351, 33–60.
Norde, Muriel, Bernard D. Clerck & Timothy Colleman
2014 The emergence of non-canonical degree modifiers in non-standard varieties of Dutch: A constructionalization perspective. In
Boogaart Ronny,
Colleman Timothy &
Rutten Gijsbert (eds.),
Extending the scope of construction grammar, 207–250. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Özyıldız, Deniz
in press.
Quantifiers in Turkish.
[URL]. (28 February, 2017.)
Quirk, Randolph
1985 A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London, New York: Longman.
Raidt, Edith Hildegard
1982 Afrikaans en sy Europese Verlede. Cape Town: Nasou Beperk.
Rett, Jessica
2008 A degree account of exclamatives.
Semantics and Linguistic Theory 181. 601–618.
Solt, Stephanie
2010 Much support and more. In
M. Aloni,
H. Bastiaanse,
T. de Jager, &
K. Schulz (Eds.),
Proceedings of the 17th Amsterdam Colloquium (pp. 446–455). Berlin: Springer.
Svenonius, Peter
2008 The position of adjectives and other phrasal modifiers in the decomposition of DP. In
Louise McNally &
Christopher Kennedy (eds.),
Adverbs and adjectives: Syntax, semantics, and discourse (
Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 18). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Travis, Lisa DeMena
1984 Parameters and effects of word order variation. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Tsujimura, Natsuko
2001 Degree words and scalar structure in Japanese.
Lingua 111(1). 29–52.
Vendler, Zeno
1957 Verbs and times.
The Philosophical Review 66(2): 143.
Williams, Edwin
1981 Argument structure and morphology.
Linguistic Review 11: 81–114.
Zwarts, Joost
1992 X’-syntax-X’-semantics. Utrecht: Utrecht University PhD.
Zwarts, Joost
2000 External arguments. In
Peter Coopmans,
Martin Everaert &
Jane B. Grimshaw.
Lexical specification and insertion. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 429–457.
Zwicky, Arnold
2006a Much ado about a lot. Retrieved from
[URL]
Zwicky, Arnold
2006b Big much squib. Retrieved from
[URL]
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Berghoff, Robyn
2020.
Evaluativity in the Afrikaans Equative and Excessive Constructions.
Language Matters 51:2
► pp. 25 ff.
Zhang, Niina Ning
2020.
Low predicate inversion in Mandarin.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 29:2
► pp. 159 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2022. 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.