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Conflicting Constraints in the Comparative Cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2016

Lukas Reinarz ,
Hugo de Vos  and
Helen de Hoop
Lukas Reinarz*
Affiliation:
Radboud University Nijmegen
Hugo de Vos*
Affiliation:
Radboud University Nijmegen
Helen de Hoop*
Affiliation:
Radboud University Nijmegen
*
Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands [[email protected]] [[email protected]] [[email protected]]
Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands [[email protected]] [[email protected]] [[email protected]]
Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands [[email protected]] [[email protected]] [[email protected]]
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Abstract

Present-day Dutch shows an alternation reflecting a transition from the use of the comparative particle dan ‘than’ toward the particle als ‘as’ in comparisons of inequality. We argue that this transition—as well as the replacement of denn/dann by als in Early New High German, and als ‘as’ by wie ‘how’ in present-day German—results from a conflict between two competing principles, Economy and Iconicity. The conflict between these two constraints in German and Dutch gives rise to a cycle, in which having two particles—one for each construction—and having one particle for both, comparatives and equatives, alternate over time.*

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 28 , Special Issue 4: New Directions in Comparative Germanic Linguistics , December 2016 , pp. 403 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2016 

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