Smith Elizabeth Allyn. Correlational Comparison in English

The Ohio State University, 2010. — 313 p.This dissertation proposes a novel analysis of the syntax and semantics of Comparative Correlative sentences in English such as the bigger they are, the harder they fall or the faster we drive, the sooner we'll get there. The analysis is cast in a framework that distinguishes between argument structure and word order, called Pheno-Tecto-Differentiated Categorial Grammar. The analysis fares better than past analyses at meeting the benchmarks set out by previous authors, and it also accounts for the new benchmarks presented here. These new benchmarks include a demonstration of the inherently proportional quantificational force in the the that begins a Comparative Correlative and new data showing that these kinds of sentences cannot appear with a full range of adverbs of quantification, unlike conditionals.