The Comparative Adjective in Ezafe Construction

Authors

Tehran University

Abstract

In this paper, we compare and contrast two competing hypotheses with respect to the structure of ‎Degree Phrase (DegP) in Persian comparative adjectival constructions in the light of Moazzami’s ‎‎(2006) analysis of the Ezafe construction in this language. Arguing against Kennedy’s (1999) ‎proposal, according to which DegP as a independent syntactic object takes the AP as its ‎complement, we show that data from Persian support the hypothesis proposed by Jackendoff ‎‎(1977), Hellan (1981), Heim (1985), McCawley (1994), and Hazout (1995), among others, under ‎which the DegP is merged in the Spec AP and takes a prepositioanal phrase headed by "az" (than) ‎as its complement. We propose that the head Deg bears a strong uninterpretable feature [Adj] and ‎absorbs the adjective to check and delete it in overt syntax.‎

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