Degree semantics, polarity, and the grammaticalization of comparative operators into complementizers

Abstract

Focusing on German, the paper presents a cross-linguistic study of the diachronic development of comparatives, providing a formal account for why comparative operators generally grammaticalise into complementisers in degree equatives more readily than in comparatives proper. It is argued that this is so because comparatives mark degree inequality overtly in a head position. This feature must be acquired by the original operator during grammaticalisation, while in equatives the operator has all the features necessary for grammaticalisation and must only lose any additional features incompatible with a complementiser. The extension of an equative complementiser into a general comparative complementiser is possible only if the relevant functional head undergoes feature change, in line with the Borer–Chomsky Conjecture. The changes under scrutiny can be well observed in the history of German and Hungarian, and similar asymmetries surface in synchronic patterns in many other languages, too.