Comparative correlatives and parameters. Abeillé, A. & Borsley, R. D. Lingua, 118(8):1139–1157, August, 2008. doi abstract bibtex The comparative correlative construction, exemplified by The more I read, the more I understand, has a number of idiosyncrasies, highlighted in Culicover and Jackendoff (1999), which pose a problem for the view that grammatical systems are the result of setting a relatively small number of parameters. Den Dikken (2005) suggests that the construction is no problem for a principles-and-parameters approach to language. However, he provides no analysis and ignores the idiosyncrasies. He proposes that the first clause is a kind of free relative. This seems to explain some of its properties, but the same properties in the second clause are unexplained. Den Dikken shows that a number of languages have broadly similar CC constructions. However, data from French suggests that he seriously underestimates the extent of cross-linguistic variation. The first clause of the French construction does not resemble a free relative and for some speakers is not subordinate clause. In addition the two clauses may be connected by the conjunction et ‘and’. Den Dikken argues that the cross-linguistic variation is lexical and not syntactic. Within his general approach this is true. However, it does not make the variation any less problematic for a principles-and-parameters approach.
@article{abeille_comparative_2008,
title = {Comparative correlatives and parameters},
volume = {118},
issn = {0024-3841},
doi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2008.02.001},
abstract = {The comparative correlative construction, exemplified by The more I read, the more I understand, has a number of idiosyncrasies, highlighted in Culicover and Jackendoff (1999), which pose a problem for the view that grammatical systems are the result of setting a relatively small number of parameters. Den Dikken (2005) suggests that the construction is no problem for a principles-and-parameters approach to language. However, he provides no analysis and ignores the idiosyncrasies. He proposes that the first clause is a kind of free relative. This seems to explain some of its properties, but the same properties in the second clause are unexplained. Den Dikken shows that a number of languages have broadly similar CC constructions. However, data from French suggests that he seriously underestimates the extent of cross-linguistic variation. The first clause of the French construction does not resemble a free relative and for some speakers is not subordinate clause. In addition the two clauses may be connected by the conjunction et ‘and’. Den Dikken argues that the cross-linguistic variation is lexical and not syntactic. Within his general approach this is true. However, it does not make the variation any less problematic for a principles-and-parameters approach.},
number = {8},
journal = {Lingua},
author = {Abeillé, Anne and Borsley, Robert D.},
month = aug,
year = {2008},
keywords = {Comparative correlatives, Constructions, English, French, Parameters},
pages = {1139--1157}
}
Downloads: 0
{"_id":"4SmgycqESSiWZXNqw","bibbaseid":"abeill-borsley-comparativecorrelativesandparameters-2008","authorIDs":[],"author_short":["Abeillé, A.","Borsley, R. D."],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"article","type":"article","title":"Comparative correlatives and parameters","volume":"118","issn":"0024-3841","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2008.02.001","abstract":"The comparative correlative construction, exemplified by The more I read, the more I understand, has a number of idiosyncrasies, highlighted in Culicover and Jackendoff (1999), which pose a problem for the view that grammatical systems are the result of setting a relatively small number of parameters. Den Dikken (2005) suggests that the construction is no problem for a principles-and-parameters approach to language. However, he provides no analysis and ignores the idiosyncrasies. He proposes that the first clause is a kind of free relative. This seems to explain some of its properties, but the same properties in the second clause are unexplained. Den Dikken shows that a number of languages have broadly similar CC constructions. However, data from French suggests that he seriously underestimates the extent of cross-linguistic variation. The first clause of the French construction does not resemble a free relative and for some speakers is not subordinate clause. In addition the two clauses may be connected by the conjunction et ‘and’. Den Dikken argues that the cross-linguistic variation is lexical and not syntactic. Within his general approach this is true. However, it does not make the variation any less problematic for a principles-and-parameters approach.","number":"8","journal":"Lingua","author":[{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Abeillé"],"firstnames":["Anne"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Borsley"],"firstnames":["Robert","D."],"suffixes":[]}],"month":"August","year":"2008","keywords":"Comparative correlatives, Constructions, English, French, Parameters","pages":"1139–1157","bibtex":"@article{abeille_comparative_2008,\n\ttitle = {Comparative correlatives and parameters},\n\tvolume = {118},\n\tissn = {0024-3841},\n\tdoi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2008.02.001},\n\tabstract = {The comparative correlative construction, exemplified by The more I read, the more I understand, has a number of idiosyncrasies, highlighted in Culicover and Jackendoff (1999), which pose a problem for the view that grammatical systems are the result of setting a relatively small number of parameters. Den Dikken (2005) suggests that the construction is no problem for a principles-and-parameters approach to language. However, he provides no analysis and ignores the idiosyncrasies. He proposes that the first clause is a kind of free relative. This seems to explain some of its properties, but the same properties in the second clause are unexplained. Den Dikken shows that a number of languages have broadly similar CC constructions. However, data from French suggests that he seriously underestimates the extent of cross-linguistic variation. The first clause of the French construction does not resemble a free relative and for some speakers is not subordinate clause. In addition the two clauses may be connected by the conjunction et ‘and’. Den Dikken argues that the cross-linguistic variation is lexical and not syntactic. Within his general approach this is true. However, it does not make the variation any less problematic for a principles-and-parameters approach.},\n\tnumber = {8},\n\tjournal = {Lingua},\n\tauthor = {Abeillé, Anne and Borsley, Robert D.},\n\tmonth = aug,\n\tyear = {2008},\n\tkeywords = {Comparative correlatives, Constructions, English, French, Parameters},\n\tpages = {1139--1157}\n}\n\n","author_short":["Abeillé, A.","Borsley, R. D."],"key":"abeille_comparative_2008","id":"abeille_comparative_2008","bibbaseid":"abeill-borsley-comparativecorrelativesandparameters-2008","role":"author","urls":{},"keyword":["Comparative correlatives","Constructions","English","French","Parameters"],"downloads":0,"html":""},"bibtype":"article","biburl":"https://bibbase.org/zotero-group/yalegramdiv/546641/","creationDate":"2020-06-08T20:03:06.016Z","downloads":0,"keywords":["comparative correlatives","constructions","english","french","parameters"],"search_terms":["comparative","correlatives","parameters","abeillé","borsley"],"title":"Comparative correlatives and parameters","year":2008,"dataSources":["x7zGDjuNExiZSaoSQ"]}