Open AccessDegree adverbs in Mauritian
Author(s) -
Shrita Hassamal,
Anne Abeillé
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
proceedings of the international conference on head-driven phrase structure grammar
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1535-1793
DOI - 10.21248/hpsg.2014.14
Subject(s) - predicate (mathematical logic) , degree (music) , linguistics , adjunct , syntactic structure , complement (music) , mathematics , computer science , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , syntax , philosophy , biology , physics , biochemistry , complementation , acoustics , phenotype , gene , programming language
In Mauritian, degree words exhibit an extreme syntactic polymorphism in combining with all major categories. When two forms coexist, *mari* ('very') and *boukou* ('a lot'), they select the predicate they modify on semantic more than syntactic criteria. We analyse degree words as adverbs with a double syntactic function: as complements in postverbal position (since they can by themselves trigger the short verbal form) and as adjuncts otherwise. We extend our analysis to inequality comparatives, *pli / plis* ('more') and *mwin / mwins* ('less') which are also polymorphic, with a double life as adjunct and complement.