Comparison classes, the relative/absolute distinction and the Spanish ser/estar alternation: commentary on the paper by Gumiel-Molina, Moreno-Quibén and Pérez-Jiménez

Abstract

Gumiel-Molina et al. (this issue) propose that a typology of comparison classes, which has been argued to figure in the analysis of the relative/absolute distinction, has a crucial role in explaining the distribution of adjectives with Spanish copulas ser/estar. This commentary briefly summarizes the main claims and notes several advantages of the proposed analysis. Two further questions arise as a consequence of the approach developed, which are discussed in subsequent sections. One concerns the status of scale structure, and whether it is a lexically-listed property or whether it is also syntactically built up and encoded in functional categories. Some evidence supporting the latter is discussed. Second, the question arises as to whether the unexpected invariance of certain adjectives can be explained in terms of the effects of additional functional categories. Some support for this is adduced for perfective adjectives, which are proposed to differ from other adjectives in terms of their structure, which includes VP structure and VP-related functional category of Aspect.