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In:The Ziggurat of Grammar: In honor of Ur Shlonsky
Edited by Lena Baunaz, Giuliano Bocci and Andrew Nevins
[Language Faculty and Beyond 20] 2025
► pp. 334–354

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Chapter 16
Arabic comparatives, gradation, and variation

 | Mohammed V University
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Published online: 13 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.20.16fas
Abstract
The investigation of the structure of Arabic comparative constructions raises a number of significant questions, among which are: (a) the question of the nature of the complement of the comparative word and its variation in elative comparatives, or (b) that of the complement of the degree adjective in equatives, or (c) the source of the min ‘than’ phrase in which the comparee is introduced. Once the structure of comparatives with these components is suitably articulated and accounted for, and given the ‘external’ adjectival character of comparatives, we might wonder if the discussed properties of comparatives favor one theory or another, including the issue of whether they are derived from adjectives or roots. I identify first some salient properties of the Arabic elative and equative comparatives. Second, I examine their structures, classes, and alternations, including the synthetic/periphrastic divide, and the root/noun/prepositional alternations of the parameter of comparison. In a third part of the paper, I propose a variational derivation parameter of adjectival comparatives, according to which a (synthetic) comparative has a root base, as in Semitic, or an adjective base as in Germanic or Romance. More properties are investigated notably with respect to the variation in the expression of the parameter of comparison and the standard of comparison, which question in particular a cross-linguistic adjective analysis of comparatives.
Article outline
  • 1.Comparatives and their classes
    • 1.1Elative comparatives
    • 1.2Equative comparatives
  • 2.Structures, classes, and alternations
    • 2.1The synthetic/periphrastic divide of the elative
    • 2.2The Root/nP/PP alternations of the PC
    • 2.3The SC and the min phrase
    • 2.4The equative CC
      • 2.4.1The PC in EqC
      • 2.4.2The structure of EqC
  • 3.Comparative syntax, variation, and typology
    • 3.1Salient properties of Arabic CC’s
      • 3.1.1The root vs. category of the PC
      • 3.1.2Variation in the expression of SC: Spatial Loc and the Source schemata
      • 3.1.3Variation in the expression of the SC: The CS Trope
    • 3.2Theories of comparatives and semantics
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (67)
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