The Semantics of Gradation

Free Choice in Deontic Inquisitive Semantics (DIS)

“…This motivates a conclusion made in (Bierwisch 1989) that EAs are underlyingly not gradable at all, though they can used as gradable with the help of a type shift or coercion that results in a scale with a derived zero (=lower-bound). (Morzycki 2011) notes that this solution is 'immediately worrying, since non-dimensional adjectives straightforwardly form comparatives and occur with degree modifiers.'…”

“…The distinction between evaluative (EAs) and dimensional adjectives (DAs) in (Bierwisch 1989) is motivated by two observations: 1) the antonymous pairs of EAs have a less obvious relation to each other than DA antonu spairs; sometimes it is hard to tell whether the two given EA items form a pair or not; 2) inference judgements for EAs vary a great deal inter-and intra-individually. The intuition behind observation 1 is the following: 'Hans ist klein (Hans is short) assigns to Hans a certain degree of height, while Hans ist faul (Hans is lazy) does not mean that Hans has a certain degree of industriousness.…”

“…Theory predicts it to be a mirror image of the low degree modifier picture, but it is not. Including the following four figures is motivated by the suggestion made in (Bierwisch 1989) that both positive (painted green) and negative EAs (painted red) are structurally similar to lower-bound adjectives (painted blue). It is not obvious from these pictures alone whether there is any tendency, but it can be seen rather well that these three classes are not strikingly different from each other: Comparing negative and positive EAs in the same way to relative adjectives (yellow) gives quite different results.…”

“…We discuss them in further detail below, but they boil down to EAs and DAs referring to their underlying scales in different ways. (Bierwisch 1989) is still the only comprehensive study of how EAs and DAs are different, and no new substantial facts were added to Bierwisch's description since 1989.…”

How do violations of Gricean maxims affect reading?

“…Many researchers have argued that size adjectives are different from color adjectives. Bierwisch (1987), for instance, noted that size modifiers belong to scalar or dimensional adjectives, the representation of which necessarily involves comparison with other category exemplars; e.g., for a house to be large (as in large house), there must be houses that are small. Other adjectives, such as color adjectives, are only "partially gradable"; whilst the intensity of a color can vary, the color of an entity is not dependent on its comparison with other category exemplars; for houses to be red, they must possess a certain color value, but there need not be houses that are blue.…”