This feature focuses on the presence of a bound marker of comparative degree on the property word in a comparative construction (e.g. -er in English tall-er). We specifically focus on comparative constructions where the standard of comparison is overtly expressed (e.g. Maria is taller than John.) but also count clearly comparative forms where the standard of comparison is null/implied/inferred from context (e.g. Maria is taller.) This feature requires the degree marker to be phonologically bound to the property word.
Achumawi (ISO 639-3: acv, Glottolog: achu1247)
Achumawi forms a comparative by suffixing -wáqtsè or -máqtsè to a property word.
wà'wá-máqtsè qà town Alturas-ú-wádé big-CMPR the town Alturas-of-at ‘This is a bigger town than Alturas.’ (de Angulo & Freeland 1930: 86)
Because this degree marker is bound to the property word in an Achumawi comparative construction, the language is coded 1.
Stassen, Leon. 1984. The comparative compared. Journal of Semantics 3. 143–182.
Stassen, Leon. 1985. Comparison and Universal Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.
Ultan, Russell. 1972. Some features of basic comparative constructions. Working Papers on Language Universals 9. 117–162.
de Angulo, Jaime & Freeland, Lucy S. 1930. The Achumawi language. International Journal of American Linguistics 6. 77–120.
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0 | absent | 1051 | |
1 | present | 275 | |
? | Not known | 862 |
Name | Glottocode | Family | Macroarea | Contributor | Value | Source | Comment |
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