TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bacskai-Atkari, Julia
T1  - Cyclical change in Hungarian comparatives
T2  - Diachronica
N2  - This paper examines cyclical changes in comparative subclauses, showing how operators are reanalysed as complementisers via the general mechanism of the relative cycle, and how this is related to whether certain lexical elements have to be deleted at the left periphery. I also show that only operators appearing without a lexical XP can be grammaticalised, which follows from the nature of the formal features associated with the various operator elements. Though the main focus is on Hungarian historical data, the framework can be applied to other languages too, such as German and Italian, since the changes stem from general principles of economy.
KW  - Comparative Deletion
KW  - comparative subclause
KW  - complementiser combinations
KW  - economy
KW  - left periphery
KW  - reanalysis
KW  - relative cycle
KW  - reinforcement
Y1  - 2014
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/38175
SN  - 0176-4225
SN  - 1569-9714
VL  - 31
IS  - 4
SP  - 465
EP  - 505
PB  - Benjamins
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -