More Support for More-Support

The role of processing constraints on the choice between synthetic and analytic comparative forms

Author
Britta Mondorf | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027234841 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027289278 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00
 
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This book provides the most comprehensive account so far of novel and hitherto unexplained factors operative in the choice between synthetic (prouder) and analytic (more proud ) comparatives. It argues that the underlying motivation in using the analytic variant is to mitigate processing demands – a compensatory strategy referred to as more -support. The analytic variant is claimed to be better suited to environments of increased processing complexity – presumably owing to its ability to facilitate early phrase structure recognition, the more transparent one-to-one relation between form and function and possibly because the degree marker more can serve as a structural signal foreshadowing cognitive complexity. A bird’s eye view of 24 determinants reveals that the processing effort which triggers the analytic comparative emanates from structures that are phonologically, morphologically, syntactically, lexically, semantically or pragmatically complex. By bridging the gap between corpus-based variation research and psycholinguistic and typological approaches, the book breaks new ground in uncovering the functional motivation behind the continued variability of synthetic-analytic contrasts.
[Studies in Language Variation, 4] 2009.  xi, 222 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“This is a very thorough and thought-provoking study of the comparative alternation in English. A must-read for everybody interested in grammatical variation.”
“Britta Mondorf's book offers by far the most comprehensive account of the linguistic factors constraining the comparative alternation. [...] It is not only an important contribution to research on adjective comparison in English but also to research on grammatical variation in general.”
“Covering an impressive range of topics and novel system-internal determinants both from an empirical and a theoretical perspective, this book cannot fail to appeal to any professional and budding linguist interested in grammatical change and variation.”
“There is 'more' to this book than meets the eye. On the surface the book only deals with two different ways of expressing the comparative form in English [...]. The book aims to explore what factors are involved in the choice between these two. A much larger and a more profound aim is to find out how the choice relates to the way language is processed, and what role efficiency and processing complexity (or processing effort) play. [...] This study is highly valuable. It presents interesting empirical findings, and raises a new set of questions that deserve further research.”
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2018. Understanding comparative alternation iny-adjectives: What else might we need?. Journal of Linguistics 54:3  pp. 459 ff. DOI logo
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2023. The complexity principle and the morphosyntactic alternation between case affixes and postpositions in Estonian. Cognitive Linguistics 34:2  pp. 297 ff. DOI logo
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2020. Explaining the variability of adjective comparatives and superlatives: entering the twenty-first century. <i>WORD</i> 66:2  pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
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2016. Formulaicity as a determinant of processing efficiency: investigating clause ordering in complex sentences. English Language and Linguistics 20:3  pp. 421 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 7. Other grammatical features: An overview. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 147 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 9. Conclusion. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 205 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 3. Jersey English in context. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 4. Methods and data. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 6. Features of the Jersey English verb phrase. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 103 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Appendix 1. Written questionnaire. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 229 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 5. Discourse marker eh. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Acknowledgements. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. ix ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 8. Standardization, levelling and identity in Jersey: A bird’s eye perspective. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 181 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Index. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 235 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 2. Theoretical foundations. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. References. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 213 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Appendix 2. Excerpt from a transcript. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 1. Introduction. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. List of maps, figures and tables. In Grammatical Variation and Change in Jersey English [Varieties of English Around the World, G48],  pp. xi ff. DOI logo

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Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CFB: Sociolinguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
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ONIX 2.1
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U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2009014291 | Marc record