Article published In: Linguistics in the Netherlands 2023
Edited by Sterre Leufkens and Marco Bril
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 40] 2023
► pp. 263–284
Degrees and manners as kinds
Evidence from Dutch equatives
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with KU Leuven.
Published online: 3 November 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00091.yu
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00091.yu
Abstract
We examine equative constructions in Dutch, comparing it to their counterparts in two other Germanic languages, namely English and German. We observe that there is significant variation in the morphosyntax of equative constructions based on whether what is being compared is a gradable adjective or a verb (e.g. Kim is as tall as Sue and Kim ran as Sue (did)) across the three languages and that the morphosyntax corresponds to meaning differences, determining what exactly can be compared in these constructions. Based on these observations, we propose an account for Dutch equative constructions based on eventuality kinds, which has implications for the semantics of comparison constructions in general in relation to the ontological status of degrees and manners in the grammar.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Degrees and manners in Dutch equatives
- 3.Previous analyses of degrees and manners across Germanic
- 3.1English
- 3.2German
- 4.Degrees and manners as kinds
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
References
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