Direct Comparisons: Resurrecting the Direct Analysis of Phrasal Comparatives

By Rajesh Bhatt, Shoichi Takahashi. 2007

80 citations recorded by the source corpus.

There have been two major strands in the analysis of phrasal comparatives: Reduction Analyses that relate the than-phrase to a degree description denoting clause and Direct Analyses that interpret the than-phrase directly. Reduction Analyses assume that the than-phrase is part of a larger clausal constituent to which reduction operations have applied. Direct Analyses, on the other hand, need to assume a new lexical entry for the degree operator. Based on evidence from binding and scope, we show that the Reduction Analysis is not an option for phrasal comparative in Hindi-Urdu. Their proper analysis requires the Direct Analysis and the 3-place degree operator that goes with it. Handling other comparatives in HindiUrdu requires the more standard 2-place degree operator. However, as Lechner (2001, 2004) has shown, English and German phrasal comparatives require a Reduction Analysis. This means that both Reduction and Direct Analyses, as well as 2-place and 3-place degree operators are options permitted by universal grammar but that languages vary in which of these options they instantiate. We show that the availability of these options in a particular language follows from independent properties of the language in question and assumptions about when new lexical entries are induced.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Language and Linguistics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3a41b321e60b4bc44ea1a5f1a115b32315802a0d

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

  1. Rajesh Bhatt
  2. Shoichi Takahashi

In Language and Linguistics

  1. Shoichi Takahashi
  2. Rajesh Bhatt

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