The Comparative Adjective in Ezafe Construction

In this paper، we compare and contrast two competing hypotheses with respect to the structure of Degree Phrase (DegP) in Persian comparative adjectival constructions in the light of Moazzami’s (2006) analysis of the Ezafe construction in this language. Arguing against Kennedy’s (1999) proposal، according to which DegP as a independent syntactic object takes the AP as its complement، we show that data from Persian support the hypothesis proposed by Jackendoff (1977)، Hellan (1981)، Heim (1985)، McCawley (1994)، and Hazout (1995)، among others، under which the DegP is merged in the Spec AP and takes a prepositioanal phrase headed by «az» (than) as its complement. We propose that the head Deg bears a strong uninterpretable feature [Adj] and absorbs the adjective to check and delete it in overt syntax.