Abstract The paper addresses the emergence and development of the Chinese correlative comparative construction (CrCC) from the perspective of constructionalization. Most previous historical studies ...of the CrCC take a grammaticalization approach (e.g., Long 2013 ), focusing mainly on morphosyntax alone rather than investigating syntax and semantics in an integrated way. However, the architecture of construction grammar requires approaching linguistic analysis with both form and meaning equally in mind. This approach suggests that what have sometimes been considered to be merely different formal expressions of the CrCC are in fact two different constructions, one correlative, and the other a simple incremental. We identify the critical contexts (see Diewald & Smirnova 2010 ) that by hypothesis enabled the constructionalization of the CrCC, and point to the importance of considering network reorganization and multiple sources in the development of the simple incremental construction (see e.g., Boas 2008 ; Van de Velde et al. 2013 ).
Comparative constructions of inequality display a recurrent pattern throughout all Germanic languages, which is partially inherited from the Indo-European mother tongue. This common semasiological ...format consists in a copulative construction in which the adjective expressing the quality carries a comparative suffix and is accompanied by a particle introducing the standard. For the latter, a morpheme coming from various onomasiological domains is generally recruited. After a general overview of the construction within the Germanic family, the paper will focus on its consistency in the German linguistic islands of Northern Italy, where a remarkable variety is found, which is only partially due to the long-standing contact with Romance languages. Besides an overview of the Bavarian islands of the North-East, particular attention is devoted to the Walser German islands of the North-West, where a number of peculiar patterns are found, which partially reflect structural possibilities attested in earlier stages of the German-speaking territory, but also display unique developments such as for instance the comparative particle ŝchu ‘so’ found in Rimella.
Abstract Little attention has been paid to the English Superlative Object Construction (SOC), as in She worked her hardest . The historical grammarians Jespersen (1909–1949) and Poutsma (1904–1929) ...are the only ones who do touch on the SOC, and they do so in passing relying on what seem to be the prototypical examples of the construction. This empirical evidence, though valuable for a first characterisation of the pattern, is insufficient to provide a detailed analysis of the form, function, frequency, and distribution of the SOC in Present Day English from the perspective of Construction Grammar. Based on usage-based data from COCA, this paper argues that the SOC qualifies as an intensifying comparative construction. Despite being low frequent and showing a set of highly entrenched, lexicalised units (e.g., smile X prettiest, work X hardest ), the SOC is relatively productive, especially in informal registers where the construction can be easily accommodated to serve emotive, phatic, and conative functions.
The study raises the issue of the preposition of comparasion vrode functioning in various types of discourse in the modern Russian language. The goal was to identify various ways of introducing a ...unit into a text, both separately and in combination with other linguistic units, and expanding the possibilities of its use in different discourses. The research was carried out on a representative selection of language material with the employment of the resources of the Russian National Corpus. The preposition vrode, actively used by a native speaker, who with its help makes the comparison more convincing, creates an atmosphere of intimate conversation. The comparative preposition vrode is used in various discourses: colloquial discourse, media discourse, fiction discourse, popular science discourse, etc. The colloquial coloring of the preposition determines its wide use in the fictional discourse, if the author needs to depict the direct communication of the characters or convey his attitude to the described subject, character. Also considered are language units derived from a preposition vrode – phraseological combinations nechto vrode, chto-to vrode, kto-to vrode, comparative conjunctions vrode kak and vrode togo kak. It is noted that the semantics of constructions with the preposition vrode in Russian is influenced by the modal particle homonymous to it, but the comparative meaning of the given linguistic unit in most cases prevails over the modal one and combined with it. The author concludes that the preposition vrode is important in the system of operators, which express comparative semantics in various types of discourse of the modern Russian language.
The article explores the interaction of comparative constructions in modern prose. The main objective of the study is to determine the types of interaction between metaphors and similes in the texts ...of modern Russian prose. The material of the study is the works of Buida, Vodolazkin, Ivanov, Ilichevsky, Matveeva, Pelevin, Rubina, Slavnikova, Sokolov, Sorokin, and Stepnova. The authors employed the methods of description, comparison and the structural-semantic analysis and also took into account the semantic field organisation of lexical units. The article distinguishes between formal and semantic interaction of metaphors and similes. The most obvious manifestation of the formal interaction is the reversibility of tropes. Semantic interaction is based on the semantic coordination of elements of comparative constructions based on predicate-actant relations or involves a combination of metaphors and similes in the text based on various relations between elements of the same semantic field. Along with the indicated types of interaction, the article describes cases of multiple images of one depicted object and representation of different objects in a unified figurative way. These cases are characterized as a special type of interaction of comparative tropes. The article highlights the main source domains of interacting tropes. The most frequent semantic classes of metaphors and similes used in interaction contexts are anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and culinary images. In addition to them, mechanistic (including computer), scientific and theatrical metaphors and similes have been identified. The article shows that the interaction of tropes can be intertextual in a literary text. It is concluded that modern Russian prose is characterized by the interaction of metaphors and similes of different types. This interaction is often associated with the presence of contrast, contextual synonymy, the ‘genus — species’ relation between images of comparative constructions in a text.
The functioning of the image of a child/children in Russian comparative constructions is analyzed as a means of figurative description of adults by analogy with children. Particular attention is paid ...to the embodiment of this image in the structure of the following constructions: kak rebenok ‘like a child’, kak deti ‘like children’, rebyacheskii ‘childish’, rebyacheski ‘in a puerile way’, (po-)detski ‘childlike’, kak mal’chik ‘like a boy’, kak mal’chishka ‘like a little boy’, mal’chisheskii ‘boyish’, (po-)mal’chisheski ‘mischievously’, kak devochka ‘like a girl’, kak devchonka ‘like a little girl’, devchonochii ‘girly’, (po-)devchonoch’i ‘girlishly’. The capacity of the above-listed comparative constructions in the explication of the semantic structure of the analyzed concept when it is used as a means of figurative description is considered using the materials of the National Corpus of the Russian Language. Based on the results obtained, conclusions are drawn about a wide range of semantic variations of the image of a child in the Russian speech, as well as about the universal capacity of the comparative constructions under study in the embodiment of the semantic structure of the concept in its entire volume. All the comparative constructions are based on the following four aspects of the concept structure: features of children’s appearance, psychological and intellectual qualities of children, features of their behavior, and their role in interaction with adults. The study is of relevance and crucial importance for further research on possible embodiment of the semantic structure of the concept by means of metaphor and comparison.
El objetivo principal de este trabajo consiste en describir por medio de corpus, con una metodología inductiva, la construcción comparativa intensificadora ser más tonto que X: 'ser tonto en grado ...sumo', para lo que se tomará como marco teórico la Gramática de Construcciones. En este sentido se realizará un estudio cuantitativo y cualitativo de las actualizaciones léxicas del slot X con el fin de determinar la fijación cognitiva y la productividad de la construcción, así como descubrir posibles rasgos recurrentes en su creatividad. Con esta investigación intentamos demostrar cuán fina es la línea que separa las unidades lexicalizadas de las creativas, con un predominio claro de estas últimas.
In French and Serbian comparative constructions of equality and inequality, negative words are distributed according to their forms, meanings and functions.French negative words - ne most frequently ...complemented by a particle pas or some other negative word, a double particle ni…ni, as well as negative ne and a double particle ni…ni in Serbian appear in the main clause (but not in the dependent clause) of comparative constructions of equality and inequality. In comparative constructions of inequality with a positive main clause, French expletive ne appears in the dependent clause with the verb, while its equivalent in Serbian nego or no occurs as a connector at the beginning of the dependent clause.Negative words in the main clause of comparative constructions of equality make the French antecedents flexible: the reduced form si alternates with aussi, as well as reduced tant with autant, and Serbian ones stable: reduced tako (from isto tako) and reduced toliko (from isto toliko) are mandatory.The autonomous word isto (easily detachable) serves to enhance the meaning of equality.The French comparative constructions of inequality with a negative main clause may have a dependent clause without or with an expletive ne, while the equivalent Serbian constructions always have a dependent clause with nego or no containing an expletive ne.There is a semantic and a functional equivalence between the French and Serbian constructions, with some syntactic differences due to the systems of two languages.
In this paper, I examine a novel type of comparative construction in Korean, namely, reduced NP comparatives (RNC), and consider its implications. On the surface, RNC may appear to be a case of the ...usual NP comparative construction in that two NPs are involved. But, unlike typical NP comparatives, the element bearing the marker of the standard of comparison in RNC does not directly participate in the comparison, i.e., there is a mismatch between the standard and pivot. I argue this is due to the fact that the standard is reduced to leave only the pivot on the surface, hence the name “reduced” NP comparatives. I also argue that one of the factors that determines the availability of RNC is the notion of comparability, which is based on whether or not the compared elements can be associated with the same scale, where the scale is part of the semantics of the gradable predicate (Cf. Kennedy 2009). The interesting twist is that RNC is possible only if the relevant elements are not comparable with each other, i.e., they should denote different types of objects that cannot be associated with the same scale. Adopting Merchant’s (The syntax of silence: sluicing, islands, and the theory of ellipsis. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001, Linguist Philos 27:661–738, 2004, J Greek Linguist 9:134–164, 2009, among others) move-and-delete approach to various ellipsis constructions, I propose a move-and-delete analysis of RNC, where the pivot undergoes movement, followed by deletion of the rest of the standard. The discussion also has implications for NP-ellipsis in Korean.
It is generally accepted that in comparative constructions, when the clausal element compared is the subject of the matrix clause, the personal pronoun following than can be either nominative which ...is usually used in formal English, where than is considered as a conjunction, or accusative which is usually used in informal English, where than is considered as a preposition. However, the data collected from the COCA corpus indicate that nominative pronouns do not tend to end a comparative construction in either formal or informal English. Based on the fundamentals of Systemic Functional Linguistics, it is improper to consider the accusative form of personal pronouns in comparative constructions as the object of than; rather they are the stressed personal pronouns. It is concluded that in comparative constructions than is always a conjunction, and the personal pronoun following than can be expanded into a finite clause. However, if the nominal group following than has no comparee in the matrix clause, it is not a comparative clause and the than-phrase is a prepositional phrase. It is further concluded that in comparative constructions than is best considered as a paratactic conjunction because comparative constructions cannot be transpositioned with the primary clauses in clause complexes.
•Nominative pronouns do not tend to end a comparative construction.•The accusative forms of personal pronouns following than are the stressed personal pronouns.•In comparative constructions than is a paratactic conjunction.
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