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    Negative polarity and comparative adjectives
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    The comparative adjective is able to license negative polarity items in its comparative complement. This means that the comparative may create the possibility for a negative interpretation of the proposition expressed in the main clause on the basis of the proposition which serves as the criterion of comparison. In the following sentence, minder fewer acts as negative polarity item, since it indicates that the norm laid down by the use of nodig necessary is not met.

    1
    In meer as 80 lande is die geboortes nou  minder as wat nodig is om te keer dat die bevolkings krimp.
    in more SIMT 80 countries be.PRS the births now fewer PTCL.SIMT that.COMP necessary be.PRS for.COMP PTCL.INF prevent.INF that the populations shrink
    In more than 80 countries the numbers of births are now smaller than what would be necessary to prevent the populations from shrinking.

    Semantically, the nature of the antonymy of the relevant adjective does not determine the polarity. In the sentence below, meer more also licenses negative polarity, although it represents the positive antonym of minder fewer, as in the first example.

    2
    die geboortes is nou meer as wat die ekonomie kan dra
    the births be.PRS now more PTCL.SIMT that.REL the economy can.AUX.MOD support
    the birthrate is now higher than what the economy can support
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    The comparative adjective is able to license negative polarity items in its comparative complement. In the examples below, the comparative adjective licenses the polar adjective langer longer. As the adjectives involved themselves do not license negative polarity items, it may be concluded that it is the comparative element, -er or meer more, which does the licensing:

    3
    langer as wat gewoonlik die geval is
    longer PTCL.SIMT that.REL usually the case be.PRS
    longer than what is normally the case

    The negative polarity item ooit ever can also be found in the comparative complement:

    4
    Sy het makliker as ooit met mense in aanraking gekom.
    she have.AUX more.easily PTCL.SIMT ever with people into contact come
    She came into contact with people more easily than ever (before).
    5
    Dié middag het hy minder verkoop as ooit die geval was.
    that afternoon has he less sold PTCL.SIMT ever the case be.PRT
    That afternoon he sold less than had ever been the case.

    In the last two examples, where the comparative complement is a proposition, it is also possible to put the complementiser wat what in between as PTCL.SIMT than and ooit ever, this is shown in the examples below:

    6
    'n groter skare as wat ooit voorheen in die dorp byeen was
    a larger crowd PTCL.SIMT that.REL ever before in the town gathered be.PRT
    a larger crowd than has ever gathered in the town

    The comparative not only licenses negative polarity in its comparative complement, but it also licenses negative polarity on its modifiers, seeing that the negative polarity item baie much, very is grammatical in the modifier position of comparatives:

    7
    baie duideliker
    much clearer

    Not all negative polarity items which occur in the complement of the comparative can occur in the scope of a superlative. Like ordinary comparatives, the inherent comparative ander / anders different, else, licenses negative polarity in its comparative phrase:

    8
    Hy het vinnig en anders gepraat as wat nodig was.
    he has faster and different talked PTCL.SIMT that.REL necessary be.PRT
    He talked faster and different than he needed to.
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Ernst Kotzé, Adri Breed
      Category: Afrikaans Syntax
      Keywords: negative polarity item
      Version: 1.0, May 2020
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Ernst Kotzé, Adri Breed May 2020
      This is a beta version.
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