| old_uid | 10988 |
|---|
| title | La représentation linguistique des adjectifs scalaires: les ensembles ordonnés et les degrés |
|---|
| start_date | 2012/03/09 |
|---|
| schedule | 14h-17h |
|---|
| online | no |
|---|
| details | Thème de la séance : Les noms déadjectivaux |
|---|
| summary | Les adjectifs scalaires sont parfois représentés en termes de degrés (Cresswell, 1976, Kennedy, 1999, von Stechow, 1984) et parfois en terme d’ensembles ordonnés (Klein, 1980, van Rooij, to appear). Cette communication présentera une adaptation de l’analyse de Klein, qui permet d’intégrer certains avantages de l’analyse en termes de degrés dans un modèle qui représente les adjectifs scalaires comme des ensembles ordonnés (voir Doetjes, Constantinescu and Součková, 2011). L’analyse est basée notamment sur le comportement linguistique des comparatives à deux adjectifs (The table is longer than the desk is wide, She is even more intelligent than she is beautiful, San Francisco Bay is more deep than Monterey Bay is shallow, voir aussi Kennedy 1999 et Bale 2006).
Abstract : Adjectives such as tall get a high degree meaning when used in isolation. Thus, John is tall does not simply mean that John has (a certain) height, but rather that he is taller than average. This led Cresswell (1976) to argue that gradable adjectives are relations between individuals and degrees and to postulate the operator pos which binds the degree variable of the adjective when used in the positive form. Given the fact that pos is invisible, its existence is based on circumstantial evidence. Not surprisingly, it has been claimed that pos does not exist: Klein (1980) argues that pos ‘is merely a device for fixing up the semantics’. In his framework, pos is not necessary as adjectives such as tall are interpreted as the property of being tall, where what counts as tall depends on the context. A major advantage of a Klein-style analysis is that gradability depends on orderings, and as such is predicted to be found outside of the adjectival system, a prediction which is born out (see Doetjes 2008). The distribution of degree modifiers such as less and more in English and for instance hodn? ‘a lot’ in Czech or trop ‘too (much)’ in French, that combine with adjectives but also with nouns and verbs, is most easily understood if one assumes that gradability follows from the existence of an ordering, rather than from the presence of a degree variable. However, it has been shown that Klein’s theory cannot account for a number of phenomena (see, e.g. Kennedy 1999, 2001, Bale 2006, 2008). In this talk, we will argue in favor of a modified version of Klein’s theory, which allows us to maintain a non degree based interpretation for gradable adjectives. We will show that a number of important insights from both Kennedy and Bale can be accommodated in this modified version.
Références :
Bale, Alan. 2006. The universal scale and the semantics of comparison, PhD-thesis, Department of Linguistics, McGill.
Cresswell, Maxwell J. 1976. The semantics of degree. In Montague grammar, ed. Barbara Partee, 261-292: Academic Press.
Doetjes, Jenny, Camelia Constantinescu, and Kate?ina Sou?kova. 2011. A neo-Kleinian approach to comparatives. In Proceedings of SALT XIX, eds. S Ito and E Cormany.
Kennedy, Christopher. 1999. Projecting the adjective: the syntax and semantics of gradability and comparison. New York: Garland Press.
Klein, Ewan. 1980. A semantics for positive and comparative adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy 24:33-70.
van Rooij, Robert. to appear. Vagueness and linguistics. In The vagueness handbook, ed. Giuseppina Ronzitti. Berlin: Springer.
von Stechow, Arnim. 1984. Comparing semantic theories of comparison. Journal of Semantics 3:1-77. |
|---|
| responsibles | Carlier |
|---|
| |