The Categorial Status of Like From a Morphological Viewpoint

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to argue that, contra Maling (1983) and Quirk et rather than a preposition; specifically, that it is an adjective which is subcategorized for to NP in the lexicon, and that the to between like and NP is obligatorily incorporated into like at D-structure.Evidence for the adjectival status of like comes from derivational morphology, specifically, from unprefixation, -ness suffixation, and -ed suffixation.Evidence for the presence of to in the subcategorization frame of like comes from inheritance of the subcategorization of the base and compound adjectives of the form Nlike.