Separate but Equal: A Typology of Equative Constructions

Prominent frameworks like Generalized Quantifier Theory have focused on individual quantifiers: those that relate sets of individuals. But since the foundational work in Bresnan (1973), degree semanticists have recognized that the comparative morpheme -er (as in Jane is taller than Bill) and the equative morpheme as (the first as in Jane is as tall as Bill) are best characterized as degree quantifiers relating sets of degrees (e.g. individuals’ heights). This characterization works well for English explicit comparatives (Kennedy, 2007a), but has been challenged for English implicit comparatives (e.g. Compared to Bill, Jane is tall) as well as languages that don’t appear to have degrees (Beck et al., 2009). The goal of this paper is to construct a parallel argument for equatives: while the standard English equative is best analyzed as involving a degree quantifier, other equative constructions in English (e.g. Jane and Bill are equally tall) and some equatives in other languages should not be treated as involving degree quantification, despite their superficial synonymy with explicit equatives. I differentiate between two distinct classes of explicit equatives: those headed by so words, like English, which do involve quantification over degrees; and those headed by that much words, like Spanish, which involve degree demonstration and coreference instead of degree quantification.