Understanding comparative alternation in y -adjectives

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Bibliographic Data

ID10141015
AuthorsDeborah Chua Fengyi (0000-0003-0863-3104, Nanyang Technological University, corresponding author), DEBORAH CHUA
Year2017
Volume54
Issue3
Pages459-491
Publication date2017-11-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2267 • E-ISSN: 1469-7742
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022226717000275
OpenAlexW2768019827
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

This paper investigates the contribution of lexical spreads (or type counts) of English comparative more and - er constructions to an understanding of comparative alternation in the $y$ -adjectives, that is adjectives ending in an orthographic ${ $ and an /i/ sound, e.g. lazy . Comparative $y$ -adjective constructions from seven corpora of stage plays spanning from the 17th to the 20th century were analysed with mixed-effects modelling and correlations drawn between the comparatives of $y$ -adjectives and those of other adjectives. The findings indicate that while morphological complexity in $y$ -adjectives biases them towards more , more occurrences with $y$ -adjectives may also be related to the lexical spread of more in disyllabic adjectives that are not $y$ -ones. The findings suggest moreover that predictions of comparative forms based on the syntactic positioning of $y$ -adjectives and the [±voiced] nature of their penultimate segments may make sense only with respect to the lexical spread of more in other English adjectives. To understand why $y$ -adjectives seem divided between - er regularisation and adherence to the trend in English comparisons of a more bias, this paper proposes a need to supplement accounts of comparative alternation focused on the characteristics of $y$ -adjectives with considerations related to the lexical spread of comparative constructions

Adjective · Alternation (linguistics · Linguistics · Noun · Part of speech · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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