The Fine Structure of the Comparative

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Authors

CAHA Pavel DE CLERCQ Karen VANDEN WYNGAERD Guido

Year of publication 2019
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Studia Linguistica
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/stul.12107
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/stul.12107
Keywords comparative; *ABA; syncretism; adjective; Czech
Description The paper provides evidence for a more articulated structure of the comparative as compared with the one in Bobaljik (2012). We propose to split up Bobaljik's cmpr head into two distinct heads, C1 and C2. Looking at Czech, Old Church Slavonic and English, we show that this proposal explains a range of facts about suppletion and allomorphy. A crucial ingredient of our analysis is the claim that adjectival roots are not a-categorial, but spell out adjectival functional structure. Specifically, we argue that adjectival roots come in various types, differing in the amount of functional structure they spell out. In order to correctly model the competition between roots, we further introduce a Faithfulness Restriction on Cyclic Override, which allows us to dispense with the Elsewhere Principle.
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