Speaker: Marta Massaia (Utrecht University)
Title: Mapping the Left Periphery of Similarity construction in Germanic: Dutch dialects as case study
Time: Tuesday, May 14th, 1pm – 2pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract: Similarity constructions in Germanic can be introduced by different elements that can be subsumed under four main types: like-, as-, so-, and how-elements. Especially in non-standard varieties, these elements can co-occur in what seems to be a strict order that holds cross-Germanically. I argue that this order can be explained if we take similative clauses to be prepositional relative clauses and these elements to be part of the head complex raising to the edge of the similative (in line with a raising analysis à la Kayne 1994). To support this idea, I will first provide data from a micro-comparative perspective (Dutch dialects), and then provide the meso-comparative perspective (English, Dutch, German, Swedish and Norwegian).