“More strenger and mightier”: Some remarks on double comparison in Middle English. Włodarczyk, M. 2007.
“More strenger and mightier”: Some remarks on double comparison in Middle English [link]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
The marginal participation of double comparison1, like more nicer, in adjective gradation in historical and contemporary English has been corroborated by numerical evidence (Kytö and Romaine 1997, 2000; González-Díaz 2004, 2006a). The studies in question, however, failed to address some data limitations and their distorting impact on the picture of real language use. Although this omission may seem less striking regarding the historical sources, it nevertheless calls for an immediate remedy. Also, the alleged marginal participation of the construction in adjective gradation, as well as its grounds, require thorough verification. What cannot be ignored, is the fact that a clear contradiction exists between the disappearance of double comparison from standard English and its popularity and persistence in colloquial speech and manifold nonstandard varieties of English and other genetically related languages. In other words, even though in the analysed data, the appearance of double comparison in English appears to be as abrupt as is its demise, its ubiquity outside the standard varieties points to a continuous development not reflected in the surviving record or the analysed contemporary corpora. With a view to this, this paper aims at an analysis based on data (so far excluded from investigations) representing the period of the highest incidence of the construction, i.e. Middle English. Also, bearing in mind the limitations of historical record, apart from synchronicallyor diachronically-oriented explanations, the study proposes resorting to some externally-oriented explanations (cf. Good, forthcoming).
@article{wlodarczyk_more_2007,
	title = {“{More} strenger and mightier”: {Some} remarks on double comparison in {Middle} {English}},
	copyright = {info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess},
	issn = {0081-6272},
	shorttitle = {“{More} strenger and mightier”},
	url = {https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/handle/10593/19052},
	abstract = {The marginal participation of double comparison1, like more nicer, in adjective gradation in historical 
and contemporary English has been corroborated by numerical evidence (Kytö and Romaine 
1997, 2000; González-Díaz 2004, 2006a). The studies in question, however, failed to address some 
data limitations and their distorting impact on the picture of real language use. Although this omission 
may seem less striking regarding the historical sources, it nevertheless calls for an immediate 
remedy. Also, the alleged marginal participation of the construction in adjective gradation, as well as 
its grounds, require thorough verification. What cannot be ignored, is the fact that a clear contradiction 
exists between the disappearance of double comparison from standard English and its popularity 
and persistence in colloquial speech and manifold nonstandard varieties of English and other genetically 
related languages. In other words, even though in the analysed data, the appearance of double 
comparison in English appears to be as abrupt as is its demise, its ubiquity outside the standard 
varieties points to a continuous development not reflected in the surviving record or the analysed 
contemporary corpora. With a view to this, this paper aims at an analysis based on data (so far excluded 
from investigations) representing the period of the highest incidence of the construction, i.e. 
Middle English. Also, bearing in mind the limitations of historical record, apart from synchronicallyor 
diachronically-oriented explanations, the study proposes resorting to some externally-oriented 
explanations (cf. Good, forthcoming).},
	language = {eng},
	urldate = {2020-05-25},
	author = {Włodarczyk, Matylda},
	year = {2007},
}

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