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dc.contributor.authorAnsaldo, Umberto
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-09T08:41:15Z
dc.date.available2021-11-09T08:41:15Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.identifier.citationAnsaldo, U. 2010. Surpass comparatives in Sinitic and beyond: typology and grammaticalization. Linguistics. 48 (4): pp. 919-950.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86369
dc.identifier.doi10.1515/ling.2010.029
dc.description.abstract

The Surpass (or Exceed) comparative is a widespread feature of Sinitic languages found in almost all ‘dialect’ groups. This article investigates the nature of Surpass constructions in Southern Chinese varieties with a focus on Cantonese, and in unrelated languages of Southeast Asia, where Surpass comparatives are also found (Thai, Lao and Vietnamese). I offer possible grammaticalization paths for the Surpass comparative in the history of Chinese grammar, and argue that Surpass constructions are typical of Southern Sinitic but not of Mandarin Chinese (contra Stassen, Comparison and universal grammar, Basil Blackwell, 1985, Stassen, Comparative constructions, Oxford University Press, 2005). I also propose that the Surpass comparative should be added to the shared features of a broadly defined Mainland Southeast Asian region which illustrates the affinity of languages such as Cantonese to their non-Sinitic Southeast Asian neighbors. Finally, in arguing that comparatives in Mandarin Chinese are not Surpass construction, I suggest that it is not Sinitic languages in general that go against robust typological correlations between basic word order and standard-adjective order; rather, it is only Mandarin that provides a counterexample and is, in that respect, typologically rare.

dc.languageen
dc.publisherDE GRUYTER MOUTON
dc.subjectSocial Sciences
dc.subjectLinguistics
dc.subjectLanguage & Linguistics
dc.titleSurpass comparatives in Sinitic and beyond: typology and grammaticalization
dc.typeJournal Article
dcterms.source.volume48
dcterms.source.number4
dcterms.source.startPage919
dcterms.source.endPage950
dcterms.source.issn1613-396X
dcterms.source.titleLinguistics
dc.date.updated2021-11-09T08:41:14Z
curtin.departmentSchool of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry
curtin.accessStatusFulltext not available
curtin.facultyFaculty of Humanities
curtin.contributor.orcidAnsaldo, Umberto [0000-0002-5733-0532]
curtin.identifier.article-number4
dcterms.source.eissn1613-396X


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