Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT VI) July 21st-25th, 2005 Typology and Universals of Comparative Correlatives Tommi Tsz-Cheung Leung University of Southern California
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Preamble Language seems to have various ways of encoding the semantic relation between two propositions with respect to the notion of correspondence, i.e. the proposition denoted in the first clause determines/corresponds that in the second clause. In this paper, we focus on one particular type of correspondence, i.e. degree correspondence across clauses as a type of interclausal relation.
In natural language: (3) The taller a scientist is, the taller his wife is. Situation: Two scientists Einstein and Hawking. It means: Height (Einstein) > Height (Hawking) Æ Height (Einstein’s wife) > Height (Hawking’s wife) It does NOT mean (see also Beck 1999): (i) Height (Einstein) = Height (Hawking) Æ Height (Einstein’s wife) = Height (Hawking’s wife)
(1) The more you eat, the fatter you get. We call this type of construction comparative correlatives (CC) (Fillmore et al (1988); McCawley (1988); Culicover and Jackendoff (1999); den Dikken (to appear))
(ii) Height (Einstein)/Height (Hawking) = x Æ Height (Einstein’s wife)/Height (Hawking’s wife) = f (x) (f:= any linear function) Semantic interpretation of clausal correspondence in terms of monotonicity (MON):
The intuitive meaning of (1): -‘The correlative construction with the-clause sometimes expresses a meaning similar to that of a contingent relationship…’ (Quirk et al 1985:1087; emphasis added in italics) -‘They express a proportionality or equivalence of tendency or degree between two situations’ (Quirk et al 1985:1111; emphasis added in italics) -The degree involved in the first clause determines the degree involves in the second clause. (McClawley 1988) -The first clause functions as a conditional clause, and the second clause a main clause. (Fillmore et al 1988), c.f. ‘If/when/As you eat more, you get correspondingly fatter’. (2) Clausal correspondence: In math: a. The greater a natural number is, the greater its square is. (∀x, y∈ N, x > yÆ x2 > y2) b. The greater a natural number is, the greater its logarithm is. (∀x, y∈ N, x > yÆ log x > log y) c. The greater a natural number is, the greater its successor is. (∀x, y∈ N, x > yÆ x +1 > y + 1)
(4) (∃MON-f)(∀α deg(α)) [ϕ (α) Æ ψ (MON-f (α)) ∧ (∀β deg(β)) [α>β Æ MONf(α)>MON-f(β)]] ‘There exists a strictly monotonic function MON-f such that for all degree α, if predicate ϕ applies to α (in the antecedent clause), then predicate ψ applies to MON-f (α) (in the consequent clause), and for all degree β such that if α is greater than β, then MON-f(α)>MON-f(β).’ (5) A function is monotonic increasing iff ∀x, y s.t. [x>y Æ f(x) > f(y)] Whether the function is monotonic increasing or decreasing in the final interpretation also depends on the semantics of the predicates in both clauses: (6) The more…the more… (increasing) [x>y Æ f(x) > f(y)] The more…the less… (decreasing) [x>y Æ f(x) < f(y)] The less…the more… (decreasing) [x
f(y)] The less…the less… (increasing) [x
First claim: Comparative correlatives are the combination of the semantics of comparatives and the correspondence of comparatives in two clauses which are monotonic, i.e. correlatives. (also Leung 2003, den Dikken (to appear)).
Questions: (a) Why does language use comparatives in expressing clausal correspondence? (b) Why are the comparatives fronted in many languages?
Question: How can this minimal view account for the typological difference? Answer (a): A monotonic (increasing or decreasing) function cannot be defined unless there is a direct comparison between two degrees/mathematical values.
2. Typology of Degree Correspondence in Comparative Correlatives
Answer (b): We don’t have a conclusive answer at this moment. However it is obvious that comparatives are fronted in particular constructions, e.g. ‘the more/-er…, the more/-er…’, shown by the following contrast (Huddleston and Pullum 2002):
2.1. Expression of Comparison 2.1.1. The use of comparative morphemes (7) a. Je müder Otto ist, desto aggressiver ist er. The tired-er Otto is the aggressive-er is he ‘The more tired Otto is, the more aggressive he is’ b. Plus quelqu’un est grand, plus il a de grand pieds. more somebody is tall more he has of big feet ‘The taller somebody is, the bigger his feet are’
(8) a. The more sanctions bite, the worse the violence becomes. (fronted comparatives) b. *The sanctions bite more, the violence becomes worse. c. *As more sanctions bite, so worse the violence becomes. d. As sanctions bite more, so the violence becomes worse. (in-situ comparatives)
(German)
In English, ‘the more/Adj-er’ is rather rare:
(French)
(9) a. *John is the taller / John is the taller of the two. But: b. John is all the better./John is so much the better (different ‘the’??).
c. Più si mangia (e) più si ingrassa. (Italian) more SI eats (and) more SI gets-fat ‘The more you eat, the fatter you get’ d. Ju mer jag la:r ka:nna honom, desto ba:ttre tycher jag om honom. The more I get to know him, the better I like him ‘The more I know him, the better I like him’
Evidence for comparatives fronting (Culicover and Jackendoff 1999): (10) a. [The more counterexamples]i Mary says that Bill has helped Fred to discover ti, the less I believe her. (unbounded dependency) b. *[The more food]i Mary knows a man that eats ti, the poorer she gets. (complex NP constraint) c. *[The fatter]i he goes to a doctor when he gets ti, the more he eats. (Conditions on Extraction Domain)
(Swedish)
e. haerci bis-taer kar-mi-kon-e kaem-taer aenjam-mi-d-e. (Persian) whatever more work-DUR-do-3s little-COMP accomplish- DUR-give-3S ‘The more she works the less she accomplishes' f. mitä kuume-mpi, sen pare-mpi. what-PART hot- COMP it-GEN good-COMP 'the hotter, the better'
(11) a. *Plusi gros il va au medicin [quand il devient ti], plus il mange (French) more fat he go to doctor when he become more he eat ‘The fatter he goes to a doctor when he gets, the more he eats' b. *[Plus nourriturei] que Mary connait un homme qui mange ti, moins riche elle devient more food that Mary know a man who eat less rich she become ‘The more food that Mary knows a man that eats, the poorer she gets'
(Finnish)
g. Izjed m’ ghandu gid, izjed imdejjaq. (Maltese) More has-3M.3S riches more sad ‘the more riches he has, the sadder he is’ i. By how much the lesse he looked for this discourse, by so much the more he lyked it. (Archaic English)
- Fronted comparatives might have semantic consequences, probably that of scope:
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For languages in which the comparative morpheme could exist independently of the marker of the ‘standard’ (Greenberg 1966), the bare comparative morpheme need not take a direct complement (i.e. comparee).
(12) a. The more he thinks that you are hardworking, the happier he is. (more>think) b. The more hardworking he thinks that you are, the happier he is. (more>hardworking) 2.1.2. Morpheme which implies degree comparison
The division of labor between the comparative marker and the marker of ‘standard’ (15) Comparative Standard marker more/-er than (English) plus que (French) mas que (Spanish) piu di (Italian) maior quam (Latin)
- ‘Exceed’, ‘increasingly’ (13) a. Ni yue da sheng shuo hua, wo yue ting bu dong You surpass big voice talk speech I surpass listen not understand ‘The louder you talk, the more I don’t understand’
(Mandarin)
b. Ni yuht gong, keoi yuht ganzoeng (Cantonese) You surpass talk 3S surpass nervous ‘The more you talk, the more nervous s/he is’ c. Khun ying phuut, khaw ying dandeng You increasingly talk he increasingly nervous ‘The more you talk, the more nervous he is’
A bare comparative morpheme usually expresses comparison within one self (i.e. across time):
(Thai)
d. Ali makin besar makin sombong Ali increasingly old increasingly arrogant ‘The older Ali gets the more arrogant he becomes’
(Indonesian)
e. Càng nhiêu nguòi càng vui Increasingly many increasingly happy ‘the more the merrier’
(Vietnamese)
(16) a. John is taller and taller. (i.e. John is taller than before) b. He is all the better (i.e. He is even better than he used to be). c. Il fait de plus en plus beau chaque jour. ‘The weather gets better and better every day’
On the other hand, ‘Exceed’ morphemes naturally express comparison within one self by the same strategy, i.e. it could be used to denote a continuous change of degree across time (17) a. Ta yue lai yue gao. 3S exceed come exceed tall ‘He is taller and taller’
While these languages are claimed to have comparative morphemes, they always require a direct object (i.e. a comparee) (14) a. Wo bi *(ni) gao. I compare you tall ‘I am taller than you’ b. Ngo gou-gwo *(keoi) I tall-COMP 3S ‘I am taller than s/he is’ c. khaw suung-kwa *(khun) 3S tall-COMP you ‘S/he is taller than you are’ d. X tôt hon *(Y) X good COMP Y ‘X is better than Y’
(French)
(Mandarin)
b. Ali makin kurus. (Indonesia) Ali increasingly thin 'Ali is getting thinner' c. Ali makin lama makin kurus Ali increasingly long(of time) increasingly thin ‘(As time goes on), Ali is getting thinner and thinner’ d. Semakin banyak surat kabar yang berwarna increasingly many newspaper REL color ‘More and more newspapers are in color’
(Mandarin) (Cantonese) (Thai)
d. man yîng náo kh¨^n pai i$ik na$i wan níi (Thai) it exceedingly cold raise go more in day this ‘It’s all the colder today’
(Vietnamese)
e. có gió, lửa càng bốc to be wind fire exceedingly make-up big ‘A wind rose, so the fire mounted all the higher’
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(Vietnamese)
c. paˇhicc´ paˇhicc´ avan miˇukkan aakum study-PP study-PP he clever-MASC become-FUT ‘The more he studies, the cleverer he will become’
2.1.2. Continuation of event and implication of degree comparison Wari’/Oro Nao (Chapakuran ; Txapacura) (Western Rondonia, Brazil) (D. L. Everett and B. Kern 1997)
(20) a. machizukuri-o sur-eba suru hodo machi-ga waruku naru. (Japanese) town making-ACC do-if do extent town-nom bad become 'The more you 'engineer' a town, the worse it gets'
English translation: ‘The more he grew, the brighter it got’ (18) ...Hwara’ hwara’ qui’ ca. big.s big.s coming.this.way 3sm
b. soshiki-ga okike-reba okii hodo kettei-wa osoi. organization-ACC big-if big extent decision-TOP late ‘The larger an organization is, the longer it takes to make decisions'
Ca hwara’ hwara’ ne. Infl.nrp big.s big.s 3n
c. keikaku tassei-wa hayak-ereba hayai plan achievement-TOP quick-if quick ‘The sooner we achieve the plan the better'
Ca hwara’ hwara; ca. Infl.nrp big.s big.s 3sm
hodo extent
ii. good
2.2. Expression of clausal correspondence
Ca hwara’ hwara; be. Infl.nrp big.s big.s 3n
2.2.1. The use of correlative markers
Xec pin ‘ari. day completely sufficiently emph.3n
Correlatives: A construction formed by two phrase markers which are dependent on each other (Quirk et al 1985).
Je ma. that.prox.hearer
(21) [As...], [so…] [As/So/Such…], [as…] [So/such…(that)…] […less/more/-er… than..] [No sooner…], [than/when …] (informal) [Barely/Hardly/Scarcely…], [when/than …] (informal)
‘(The sunlight) grew greater. As (the top of his head) grew. as (the sunlight) grew. As (the top of his head) grew. It became completely and sufficiently day. That’s it. (19) a. Avan tinnumtoorum taˇikkunnu (Malayalam) He eat-recurringly become fat-PRES ‘the more he eats, the fatter he becomes’
[The more/-er…], [the more/-er…] (comparative correlatives)
b. ko¯cumtoorum kuˇˇi kuuˇutal vaßaÒaakum pamper-recurringly child much get spoilt-FUT ‘The more you pamper the child, the more it will get spoilt’
[Whether/if…or…] [Although/even if/(even) though/while…], [(yet/nevertheless)…] [If/once/since/unless…], [(then/in that case)…] [Because/seeing (that)…], [(therefore)…]
Repetition of an adverbial participle (PP has the function of conjoining two sentences with shared subjects and one is successive to another)
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Answer: The structure of comparative correlatives is the same as that of correlatives in general.
The comparative correlative markers cannot be omitted: (22) a. *(The) more you eat, *(the) fatter you get. b. *(Je) müder Otto ist, *(desto) aggressiver ist er. The tired-er Otto is the aggressive-er is he ‘The more tired Otto is, the more aggressive he is’ c. *(Im) bardziej jestes zmeczony, *(tym) gorzej pracujesz. COR more you-are tired COR worse you-work ‘The more you are tired, the worse you work’ d. *(jiitnaa) suuraj chamk-aa *(utnii-hii) ThanD baRh-ii How-much.MSG sun.M shine-PERF that-much.F-only cold.F ‘The more the sun shone, the colder it was’
(English) Evidence: Indo-Aryan correlatives and comparative correlatives (Srivastav 1991, Bhatt 2003):
(German)
(24) [IP [CorCP …REL(-XPi)…]i [IP …DEM(-XPi)…]] (Polish)
(25) a. [*(Jo) (CD) sale-par hai Aamir] *(us) CD-ko khari:d-ege. REL CD sale-on be-PRES Aamir DEM CD-ACC buy-FUT.M.SG ‘Aamir will buy the CD that is on sale’ (lit. ‘Which (CD) is on sale, Aamir will buy that CD.’)
(Hindi 1 )
(Hindi)
(Hittite)
The ‘exceed’ morpheme could be viewed as the carrier of the correlative marker:
b. [*(Kuis)-an appa-ma uwatezzi n-za] *(apas)-at dai. REL-nom-s-him back-PRT bring-3SG PRT-PRT DEM-NOM-s-him take-3SG ‘The one who brings him back takes him for himself’
(23) a. Ni *(yuht) gong, keoi *(yuht) ganzoeng You surpass talk 3S surpass nervous ‘The more you talk, the more nervous s/he is’
c. [*(Je) mee-Tii okhane daRie ache] *(Sei) lOmba REL girl-3SG there stand- CONJ be-PRES-3 SG 3 SG tall ‘The girl who is standing over there is tall’
(Bangla)
b. Khun *(ying) phuut, khaw *(ying) dandeng You increasingly talk 3S increasingly nervous ‘The more you talk, the more nervous he is’
(Cantonese)
(Thai)
- The parallel occurrence of the correlative markers generates clausal correspondence. Rough interpretation of comparative correlatives (e.g. ‘the more you eat, the fatter you get’):
c. Ali *(makin) besar *(makin) sombong Ali increasingly old increasingly arrogant ‘The older Ali gets the more arrogant he becomes’
(Indonesia)
d. *(Càng) nhiêu nguòi *(càng) vui Increasingly many increasingly happy ‘the more the merrier’
(Vietnamese)
NOT: If You eat more, then you get fatter. (simple conditional without degree correspondence) BUT: If You eat more to a degree, then you get fatter to the corresponding degree. (conditional with degree correspondence) Æ The correlative marker in the first clause denotes an indefinite degree morpheme, whereas the one in the second clause denotes an anaphoric expression of degree. (Leung 2003, den Dikken (to appear)). Thus the two correlative markers assume different syntactic functions.
Why parallel occurrence of comparative correlatives markers? 1
The reason there is no comparative morpheme in Hindi comparative correlatives is basically because Hindi does not have comparative morpheme at the first place: (a) Kutta billii se baRaa hai Dog cat from large is ‘The dog is larger than the cat.’
The comparative morpheme is fronted to modify the degree moment via the formation of constituent. Compare:
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(26) a. *As more sanctions bite, so worse the violence becomes. b. As sanctions bite more, so the violence becomes worse. (in-situ comparatives)
(Excluded languages include Japanese and Korean in which the construction is conditional)
Syntactic analysis of comparative correlatives (den Dikken (to appear)): (27) [HEADCL [SUBCL [DegP ([PP P) [CP OP [Q]](]) [Deg’ Deg [AP COMPARATIVE]]]i…ti …], [HEADCL [DegP ([PP P) [CP DEM [Q]](]) [Deg’ Deg [AP COMPARATIVE]]]i …t i …],
The relationship between the two markers is anaphoric:
The correspondence between relative and correlative marker (den Dikken to appear) (28) Language Correlative Marker 1 Correlative Marker 2 English (by how much) the (by so much) the Dutch Hoe Des te OR hoe German Je ‘Q/ever’ Desto ‘the-GEN-TO’ Umso ‘P-so’ Hungarian mi-nél ‘what-ADDESSIVE’ Az-nál (Æ annál) ‘that- ADDESSIVE’ Polish Im ‘3.PL.DAT (?!)’ Tym ‘DET.M- INST’ Czech ćím ‘what-INST’ Tim ‘that/it- INST’ Russian Chem. ‘what- INST’ Tem ‘that- INST’ Naskol’ko ‘by how much’ Nastol’ko ‘by that much’ Hindi Jitnaa ‘how-much’ Utnii ‘that-much’ Latin Quanto ‘how-much’ Tanto ‘that-much’ Mongolian Xedii ‘how-much’ Tödii ‘that-much’ Greek Oso ‘as-much’ Toso ‘that-much' (29) [DegP ([PP P) [CP OP [Q]](]) [Deg’ Deg [AP COMPARATIVE]]]i…ti …], Archaic English by how/so much the Old English INST py ∅ (pe) English --∅ ∅ the more French --∅ ∅ ∅ plus Italian --∅ ∅ ∅ piu German --je ∅ ∅ -er GEN des ∅ -to Um so ∅ ∅ Russian INST chem ∅ ∅ Mandarin --- ∅ ∅ ∅ yue Cantonese --- ∅ ∅ ∅ yuht Thai --- ∅ ∅ ∅ ying Vietnamese --- ∅ ∅ ∅ càng Indonesian --- ∅ ∅ ∅ makin
The two comparative correlative markers bear different status even they are morphologically identical to each other:
(30) [CP [CP …Wh/Rel-XPi/…] [IP …DEM-XPi…]]
(31) a. The1 more you eat, the2 fatter you get. b. You get (??the2) fatter, the1 more you eat.
(Culicover and Jackendoff 1999)
This is parallel to the distinction between Correlatives and Free Relatives: (32) a. Where there is a will, there is a way b. I go (*there) where you are playing.
(Correlatives; idiom) (Free Relatives)
In Mandarin, the correlative marker in the second clause could assume different guises depending on the intended meaning: (33) ‘Yue…geng’: a. huiyi chenmo de shijian yue/*geng chang, you yongqi dapo jiangju de fayanzhe jiu geng shao long have courage break silence REL speaker then even less meeting silent REL time surpass
‘The longer the silence during the meeting, the fewer speakers who have courage to break the silence’ ‘Yue…pian’: b. yue/*pian jinzhi wo zou de shi, wo jiu pian yao zou surpass prohibit I do REL thing I then willfully want do ‘The more you prohibit me to do something, the more willfully I want to do’
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Any proposal which treats comparative correlatives as ad-hoc is completely wrong!! - The X-er the Y-er construction is a formal idiom (Fillmore et al 1988:506) - It is idiomatic in the sense that some aspect of its form and/or meaning is not strictly predictable given knowledge of the rest of grammar (Goldberg 1995:22) - It is a syntactic construction that is not entirely derivable from principles of ‘core grammar’ and receives specialized interpretations. (Jackendoff 1997:174) -The CC construction is sui generis, in that its basic paratactic structure does not conform to the general patterns of X-bar theory (Culicover and Jackendoff 1999:567)
Reference Andersen, P. K (1983). Word Order Typology and Comparative Constructions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Beck, Sigrid (1997). On the semantics of comparative conditionals. Linguistics and Philosophy 20: 229-271. Bhatt, R (2003). Locality in correlatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 210: 485-541. Borg, A and M. Azzopardi-Alexander (1997). Maltese. London and New York. Routledge. Comrie, B (1986). Conditionals: A typology. In E.C.Traugott et al (Eds.), On Conditionals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Culicover, P and R. Jackendoff (1999). The view from the periphery: the English comparative correlative. Linguistic Inquiry 30. 4: 543-571. Den Dikken, M (to appear). Comparative correlatives comparatively. Linguistic Inquiry. Everett, D. L. and B. Kern (1997). Wari’. London and New York: Routledge. Fillmore, C et al (1988). Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: The case of let alone. Language 64. 3: 501-538. Goldberg, A. E (1995). Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press. Greenberg, J. H (ed.) (1966). Universals of Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Mass: MIT Press. Huddleston, R and G. K. Pullum (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leung, T. T-C (2002). Comparative Correlatives and Parallel Occurrence of Elements. Ms, USC. McCawley, J (1988). The comparative conditional constructions in English, German and Chinese. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 176-187. Srivastav, V (1991). The syntax and semantics of correlatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 9: 637-686.
Conclusion: - Comparative correlatives have two components, i.e. comparatives and clausal correspondence. - Comparatives could be expressed by the comparative morphemes, or other strategies which imply semantic comparison of some sort (i.e. ‘exceed’-morphemes, repetition of predicates, etc). - Clausal correspondence could be expressed by the parallel occurrence of correlative markers, which semantically denote a degree. - Comparative fronting could be understood as a type of degree modification which is syntactically represented by the formation of constituent ‘the more/Adj-er’ - The conditional reading of comparative correlatives derives from the semantic meaning of a monotonic function in terms of material implication.
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