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Quantifiers in Comparatives: A Semantics of Degree Based on Intervals

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Abstract

The sentence Irving was closer to me than he was to most of the others contains a quantifier, most of the other, in the scope a comparative. The first part of this paper explains the challenges presented by such cases to existing approaches to the semantics of the comparative. The second part presents a new analysis of comparatives based on intervals rather than points on a scale. This innovation is analogized to the move from moments to intervals in tense semantics. The remainder of the paper is concerned with an interval-based semantics of degree in relation to issues other than the comparative proper. The paper begins with a discussion of the role negative polarity has played in studies on the semantics of comparatives.

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  1. Linguistics Department, Rutgers University, 18 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, U.S.A.

    Roger Schwarzchild & Karina Wilkinson

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  1. Roger Schwarzchild
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  2. Karina Wilkinson
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Schwarzchild, R., Wilkinson, K. Quantifiers in Comparatives: A Semantics of Degree Based on Intervals. Natural Language Semantics 10, 1–41 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015545424775

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