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Linglib.Studies.BeckOdaSugisaki2004

Beck, Oda & Sugisaki 2004: Parametric Variation in the Semantics of Comparison #

[beck-oda-sugisaki-2004] argue that Japanese yori-constructions are not English-style degree comparatives: the yori-constituent is a free relative denoting an individual ((34): ⟦John-ga kaita⟧ = what John wrote), which sets the context for a positive or contextual comparative in the main clause, rather than a than-clause denoting a set of degrees. Japanese, they conjecture, lacks binding of degree variables in the syntax — their Degree Abstraction Parameter — while English has it. Three empirical differences follow, recorded in Data/Examples/BeckOdaSugisaki2004.json: variable acceptability of degree (vs amount) yori-comparatives ((3)–(4)), the absence of subcomparatives ((5-a) vs (5-b) — the English side is Degree.subcomparative), and the absence of English-like negative-island effects ((6)).

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def BeckOdaSugisaki2004.standardRequiresAbstraction (e : Data.Examples.LinguisticExample) :
Prop

The standard clause of this construction only has a well-formed LF if the language abstracts over degree variables in the syntax.

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    @[instance_reducible]
    instance BeckOdaSugisaki2004.instDecidableStandardRequiresAbstraction (e : Data.Examples.LinguisticExample) :
    Decidable (standardRequiresAbstraction e)
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    def BeckOdaSugisaki2004.japaneseRows :
    List Data.Examples.LinguisticExample

    The Japanese rows of (3)–(6).

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      theorem BeckOdaSugisaki2004.japanese_lacks_degree_abstraction (e : Data.Examples.LinguisticExample) :
      e ∈ japaneseRows → (e.judgment = Features.Judgment.ungrammatical ↔ standardRequiresAbstraction e)

      The paper's parameter at work in Japanese: a construction whose standard clause requires syntactic degree abstraction is ungrammatical, and every other recorded construction is acceptable. The degraded-but-not-star (4-a) is excluded — its variability is the paper's separate explanandum.

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      def BeckOdaSugisaki2004.englishRows :
      List Data.Examples.LinguisticExample

      The English controls: both degree-abstraction constructions are well-formed LFs, and (6-b)'s ungrammaticality is instead Rullmann-style maximality failure over the degree set — undefined, not unbuildable.

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        theorem BeckOdaSugisaki2004.english_subcomparative_available :
        Examples.subcomp_en.judgment = Features.Judgment.acceptable ∧ standardRequiresAbstraction Examples.subcomp_en

        English has degree abstraction: the subcomparative (5-b) is acceptable even though its standard requires it.