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Article published In: Similatives: Semantic sources, pathways, and types of usage
Edited by Anna Kisiel, Hélène Vassiliadou, Valentina Benigni, Beatrice Bernasconi, Lieselotte Brems and Dejan Stosic
[Lingvisticæ Investigationes 48:2] 2025
► pp. 189–220

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The syntax of similative clauses

Insights from Germanic

 | Utrecht University
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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 Utrecht University.

Published online: 19 February 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/li.00128.mas
Abstract
In this contribution, I address the syntax of similative clauses in Germanic. Drawing mostly from English and German, I show that similative clauses pattern with prepositional relative clauses and hence are to be analysed as such. Specifically, I propose that the so-called parameter in similatives corresponds to the head complex of the relative clause that originates within the subordinate clause to then raise to the edge of it in line with the head-raising approach to relative clauses as originally proposed by Kayne, R. S. (1994). The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar. The underlying syntactic structure I argue for in this contribution, as well as the derivation proposed for similative clauses is not specific to English and German, but should also hold for other Germanic varieties.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Identifying similative clauses
  • 2.Similative clauses as relative clauses
    • 2.1Previous approaches to similative clauses
    • 2.2Comparing similatives and (prepositional) relatives
    • 2.3Parameters as relative heads
    • 2.4Standard markers as relative markers
      • 2.4.1English as and German wie
      • 2.4.2English like
  • 3.The syntax of English and German similative clauses
    • 3.1Prepositional relatives under a raising approach
  • 4.A typology of Germanic similative clauses
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (56)
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