NDLI: Metalinguistic comparison in an alternative semantics for imprecision

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Morzycki, Marcin
Copyright Year	2011
Abstract	This paper offers an analysis of metalinguistic comparatives such as more dumb than crazy in which they differ from ordinary comparatives in the scale on which they compare: ordinary comparatives use scales lexically determined by particular adjectives, but metalinguistic ones use a generally-available scale of imprecision or ‘pragmatic slack’. To implement this idea, I propose a novel compositional implementation of the Lasersohnian pragmatic-halos account of imprecision—one that represents clusters of similar meanings as Hamblin alternatives. In the theory that results, existential closure over alternatives mediates between alternative-sets and meanings in which imprecision has been resolved. I then articulate a version of this theory in which the alternatives are not related meanings but rather related utterances, departing significantly from Lasersohn’s original conception. Although such a theory of imprecision is more clearly ‘metalinguistic’, the evidence for it from metalinguistic comparatives in English is surprisingly limited. The overall picture that emerges is one in which the grammatical distinction between ordinary and metalinguistic comparatives tracks the independently motivated distinction between vagueness and imprecision.
Starting Page	39
Ending Page	86
Page Count	48
File Format	PDF
ISSN	0925854X
Journal	Natural Language Semantics
Volume Number	19
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	1572865X
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2011-01-09
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Comparatives Imprecision Metalinguistic phenomena Degrees Alternatives Philosophy of Language Semantics Syntax
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy Linguistics and Language

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