LISSIM 6

June 1-15, 2012@ Kangra

Selected Essays

Comparative Correlatives in Hindi

Deepak Kumar
PhD (DU)

The goal of this essay is to give an analysis of Comparative Correlatives in Hindi. Comparative Correlatives, also called as Comparative Conditional is exemplified below. The first example is from English and the second example is from Hindi.

(1)   The higher the stakes (are), the lower his expectations (are).

(2)	[IP[CP jitnaa	khaoge]	[IP utne	mote	hote	jaoge]]
	how much	eat	that much	fat	become	go
	The more you eat, the fatter you become.

  

den Dikken (2005) calls it unfortunate fact that the above examples do not look like (cor)relative construction at the first sight. Jespersen’s (1961) observation indicate that it is indeed a descendant of a correlative construction. den Dikken (2005) establishes that the comparative correlative construction fits the macrostructure of a correlative in Hindi perfectly as it features a relative clause in the sentence initial position followed by a clause introduced by a demonstrative as exemplified in (3) and (4).

(3)	[IP[CP jitnaa	suraj	camkaa]	[IP utni	ThanD	baRhi]]
	how much	sun	shine Pfv	that much	cold	increase
	The more the sun shone, the colder it got.

 

(4)	[IP[CP jitnaa	baRaa	lokatantra]	[IP utnaa	jyaadaa	bhrastaacaar
	how much	big	democracy	that much	more	corruption
	The bigger the democracy, higher the corruption.

 

Correlatives in Hindi too have the same construction as given below.

(7)    [_IP [_{Cor CP}     Rel-XP          ]     [_IP       Dem-XP       ]]

Thus, crosslinguistically, the comparative correlative wears its correlative nature on its sleeve i.e., the morphosyntax of a correlative construction.

Differences between Comparative Correlative and the Correlative in Hindi

1. Correlatives allow repetition of the Head NP inside the correlative clause (cf. 8) whereas the comparative correlative has comparative in both the clauses (cf. 9).

(8)	jo	laRkii	khaRii	hai	vo        laRkii	lambii	hai
	REL	girl	stand	is	DEM   girl	tall	is
	The girl who is standing is tall.

 

(9)	[IP[CP jitnaa	suraj	camkaa]	[IP utni	ThanD	baRhi]]
	how much	sun	shine Pfv	that much	cold	increase
	The more the sun shone, the colder it got.

 

2. A Dem-XP is required in the matrix clause of the correlative (cf. 10) whereas the same requirement may not be there in the comparative correlative (cf. 11).

(10)	[[jo CD]i	sale-par	hai]i	Maya	[*(us)	(CD) ko]i	kharid-egi:
	Rel CD	sale-on	be Prs	Maya F	Dem	CD Acc	buy Fut F
	Maya will buy the CD that is on sale.

  

(11)	jyaadaa	khaogi	moti	ho	jaogi
	more	eat	fat	become	go
	The more you eat, the fatter you become.

 

3. A correlative clause can contain more than one relative pronoun (cf. 12) whereas a comparative correlative can have only one (cf. 13).

(12)	jis	laRkiiNEi	jis	laRkeKOj	dekhaa	usNEi	usKOj	pasand	kiyaa
	REL	girl-Erg	REL	boy-Acc	saw	DEM-Erg	DEM	liked
	Which girl saw which boy, she liked him.

 

(13)	jitni	der	hoti	gayi	utni	becaini	baRhti	gayi
	how much	late	be	go	that much	anxious	increase	go
	The later it got, the anxious it became.

 Structure proposed for Comparative Correlative

den Dikken (2005) proposes the following structure for the comparative correlative:

i)                    [_HeadCl [_SubCl [_DegP ([_PP P) [_QP Op [Q]](]) [_Deg’ Deg [_AP  comparative ]]]_j… t_j… ]]

 ii)                  [_HeadCl [_DegP ([_PP P) [_QP Dem [Q]](]) [_Deg’ Deg [_AP comparative ]]]_j… t_j… ]]

 The relative clause is the sub clause (SUBCL) which is adjoined to the second clause (HEADCL). Let’s see the feasibility of the proposed structure for the comparative correlative in Hindi.

(14)	[IP[CP jitnaa	suraj	camkaa]	[IP utni	ThanD	baRhi]]
	how much	sun	shine Pfv	that much	cold	increase
	The more the sun shone, the colder it got.

In sub clause, DegP is the degree phrase (as in the English example the higher the stakes… ). In the second clause Deg head appears. So, it looks most unlikely that the structure proposed is feasible for comparative correlatives in Hindi. As den Dikken (2005) points out that comparative correlative fits the macrostructure of a correlative, so it is most likely to have that structure i.e., of the correlative.

 (15)                                                    IP
                                                      3
                                           Rel Cl                 IP
                              jitnaa suraj camkaa3
                                                                                 3
                                                                       Dem-XP           V
                                                      utni ThanD       baRhi

 Thus, comparative correlatives are different from correlatives in Hindi but structurally looks the same.

 References

Bhatt, Rajesh. 2003. Locality in Correlatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 210:485-541.

Srivastav, Veneeta. 1991. The Syntax and Semantics of Correlatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 9: 637-686.

Siloni, Tal. 1995. On Participial Relatives and Complementizer D⁰: a Case study in Hebrew and French. Natural language and Linguistic Theory. 13: 445-487.

Den Dikken, Marcel. 2005. Comparative Correlatives Comparatively. Linguistic Inquiry. 36:4. 497-532.

 
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