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Sigrid Beck Colloquium

Sigrid Beck
Tübingen

Crosslinguistic variation in comparison constructions

Friday, March 6, 3:30 pm, Machmer W-23

Reception to follow in the department lounge.

Abstract

I will parallel sets of data on comparison constructions from several languages. On the basis of the crosslinguistic differences observed, we propose three parameters of language variation. The first parameter concerns the question of whether or not a language's grammar has incorporated scales into adjective meanings. The second parameter differentiates between languages that allow quantification over degrees in the syntax and those that do not. Finally, we propose a syntactic parameter that concerns options for syntactically filling the degree argument position of a gradable predicate.