Article published in:
Variation in phonology
Edited by Péter Szigetvári
[Linguistic Variation 20:1] 2020
► pp. 102–135
Regular article

Degree modification across categories in Afrikaans

| Stellenbosch University
| Utrecht University
| Leiden University
| Utrecht University

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.

Keywords: degree modification, gradability, Afrikaans
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
Published online: 15 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.17004.ber
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