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An issue of interest to work in areas ranging from lexical semantics to natural language processing (especially automatic text generation) to language pedagogy is the

In this article we develop a semantic typology of gradable predicates, with special emphasis on deverbal adjectives. We argue for the linguistic relevance of this typology by demonstrating that the distribution and interpretation of degree modifiers is sensitive to its two major classificatory parameters: (1) whether a gradable predicate is associated with what we call an open or closed scale, and (2) whether the standard of comparison for the applicability of the predicate is absolute or relative to a context. We further showthat the classification of an important subclass of adjectives within the typology is largely predictable. Specifically, the scale structure of a deverbal gradable adjective correlates either with the algebraic part structure of the event denoted by its source verb or with the part structure of the entities to which the adjective applies. These correlations underscore the fact that gradability is characteristic not only of adjectives but also of verbs and nouns, and that scalar properties are shared by categorially distinct but derivationally related expressions.* 1. DEGREE MODIFICATION IN DEVERBAL GRADABLE ADJECTIVES. Among the many observations made in Bolinger’s (1972) classic study of degree expressions in English, two stand out. First, degree modifiers in English have distributions that cannot be given

This paper studies a distinction that was proposed in previous works between total and partial adjectives. In pairs of adjectives such as safe-dangerous, clean-dirty and healthy-sick, the first ("total") adjective describes lack of danger, dirt, malady etc., while the second ("partial") adjective describes the existence of such properties. It is shown

Current theories of aspect acknowledge the pervasiveness of verbs of variable telicity, and are designed to account both for why these verbs show such variability and for the complex conditions that give rise to telic and atelic interpretations. Previous work has identified several sets of such verbs, including incremental theme verbs,

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This work investigates children’s early semantic representations of gradable adjectives (GAs) and proposes that infants perform a probabilistic analysis of the input to learn about abstract differences within this category. I first demonstrate that children as young as age three distinguish between relative (e.g., big, long), maximum standard absolute (e.g., full, straight), and minimum standard absolute (e.g., spotted, bumpy) GAs in the way that the standard of comparison is set and how it interacts with the discourse context. I then ask if adverbs enable infants to learn these differences. In a corpus analysis, I demonstrate that statistically significant patterns of adverbial modification are available to the language learner: restricted adverbs (e.g., completely) are more likely than non-restricted adverbs (e.g., very) to select for maximal GAs with bounded scales. Non-maximal GAs, which are more likely to be modified by adverbs in general, are more likely to be modified by a narrower range, predominantly composed of intensifiers (e.g., very). I then ask if language learners recruit this information when learning new adjectives. In a word learning task employing the preferential looking paradigm, I demonstrate that 30-month-olds use adverbial modifiers they are not necessarily producing to assign an interpretation to novel adjectives. Adjectives modified by completely are assigned an

reference to abstract representations of measurement, or "scales". A question that has not been seriously addressed, however, is whether scalar representations underlie the semantic properties of categories other than gradable adjectives. This question is important because gradability is not just a property of adjectives, but of nouns, verbs, and prepositions as well. This point is made quite clearly in several important early studies of grading (in particular Sapir 1944 and Bolinger 1972), but it has not been investigated in depth or detail by contemporary work in semantics. Although some analyses of non-adjectival categories have incorporated elements of grading and scalar representations (in particular, work on verbal aspect and directional prepositions), there have been no systematic investigations of the deeper role of scalar representations in natural language. The purpose of this study is to conduct just such an investigation, through a comprehensive examination of the role of

The plan for today is to build a basic understanding of the ‘state of the art ’ in semantic analyses of gradable predicates, so we can begin to understand how sentences like (1) are assigned truth conditions in a context of utterance.