DGfS 2009: University of Osnabrück March 5, 2009 Comparison Constructions and Similarity-based Classification 1 Dimensions of Comparison Peter Alrenga (palrenga@uchicago.edu) University of Chicago 1 Introduction Previous research on English comparatives has focused almost exclusively on “scalar comparatives” headed by more/–er, less, and (equative) as. (1) a. The plant is taller than the door is. b. Harry is less intelligent than I expected him to be. c. Mary is as pretty as she’s always been. Comparatives headed by same and different constitute a relatively understudied class of constructions (though see Heim 1985 and Moltmann to appear). (2) a. Barry is different than his sister is. b. (In those respects,) Barry is the same as his sister is. • whereas (2a) asserts the presence of some dissimilarity between Barry and the speaker, (2b) asserts that the two individuals are similar in all relevant respects 1.1 Two kinds of comparatives compared “Similarity comparatives” display many of the hallmark grammatical properties of scalar comparatives: A. The two allow for (nearly) the same range of complementation possibilities. (3) a. Mary is as tall as John. b. Mary is as tall as John used to be. c. Paul’s voice sounds better than it did (sound) before. d. Chris is much taller than I had previously suspected (that he was). (4) a. I feel the same as you. b. I feel the same as you used to feel. c. Paul’s voice sounds different than it did (sound) before. d. The book turned out much differently than I had thought (that it would turn out). • uniform island-sensitivity of gap in clausal complements (5) *Chris is taller than I wonder whether Bill is __ . (6) *College is different than I wondered whether it would be __ . 2 B. The same sorts of measure phrases and adverbial modifiers occur in both constructions (Bresnan 1973, Huddleston and Pullum 2002; see also Corver 1997, Doetjes 1996). • more/–er, less, and different occur with such measure phrases as much, a lot, no, (NPI) any, and little (unlike most simple gradable adjectives) (7) a. Chris is {much, a lot} less happy than I expected him to be. b. I’m {no, not any} more intelligent now than I was before. c. The race takes place on a strip that in some places is little wider than an old-fashioned, two-lane U.S. highway. (cf. *Chris is much happy; *I’m no intelligent; and *The racetrack is little wide) (8) a. My leadership role will be {much, a lot, a great deal} different than it was last year. b. I’m {no, not any} different than I used to be. c. Many professing Christians are practicing shameful lifestyles that are little different than those of unbelievers. • as and same occur with such modifiers as nearly, almost, roughly, and exactly (9) Chris is {nearly, almost, roughly, exactly} as tall as I expected him to be. (10) She looks {nearly, almost, roughly, exactly} the same as her twin sister. C. Both are sensitive to the presence of negation and other negative quantifiers in their clausal complements (the so-called “negative island effect”; see Rullmann 1995). (11) Chris is as intelligent as he {claimed, *didn’t claim} to be. (12) I feel the same as I {always, *never} have. D. Both give rise to de re / de dicto ambiguities when they occur in intensional contexts (Russell 1905, Postal 1974). (13) George thinks that your yacht is longer than it is. • mistaken reading: George possesses an incorrect belief about your yacht • contradictory reading: George’s belief is one that can never be true (14) Mary thinks that John sounded different than he did. • mistaken reading: Mary possesses an incorrect belief about John’s voice • contradictory reading: Mary’s belief is one that can never be true