Parametric Variation in the Semantics of Comparison: Japanese vs. English
Parametric Variation in the Semantics of Comparison: Japanese vs. English
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比较语义中的参数变化：日语与英语
DOI：
10.1007/s10831-004-1289-0
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发表时间：
2004
影响因子：
0.5
通讯作者：
K. Sugisaki
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Sigrid Beck;Toshiko Oda;K. Sugisaki
本文提出了对日语中比较结构的语义分析，这与针对英语和相关语言开发的比较标准语义至关重要。与构图语义相反，日本比较构造的解释在很大程度上被确定。与英语相比，句法提供的比较项目（伴随YORI的组成部分）没有学位语义；它最终贡献了一个人。从这个项目中必须推断出真正的比较。我们认为，日本人没有英语式的算子，并且可能完全缺乏语法中的学位变量的抽象。拟议的分析解释了日语和英语之间的许多经验差异。一个更一般的结果是，比较语义会经过跨语言变化。语言变化的参数被认为是我们观察到的差异的来源。
This paper proposes a semantic analysis of comparison constructions in Japanese which is crucially different from the standard semantics of comparatives as developed for English and related languages. The interpretation of the Japanese comparison construction is determined to a larger extent by pragmatic strategies, as opposed to compositional semantics. The syntactically provided item of comparison (the constituent accompanying yori) does not, in contrast to an English than-clause, have a degree semantics; it ultimately contributes an individual. From this item the real comparison has to be inferred. We argue that Japanese does not have English-style degree operators and probably lacks abstraction over degree variables in the syntax altogether. The proposed analysis accounts for a number of empirical differences between Japanese and English. A more general outcome is that the semantics of comparison is subject to crosslinguistic variation. A parameter of language variation is suggested as the source of the differences we observe.