On the predicative use of Chinese gradable adjectives

Lingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 247 ◽  
pp. 102979
Author(s):  
Daogen Cao ◽  
Jianhua Hu
Keyword(s):  
Gradable Adjectives

scholarly journals Adjectival scales and three types of implicature

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 409
Author(s):  
Nicole Gotzner ◽  
Stephanie Solt ◽  
Anton Benz
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Distance ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Standard Of Comparison ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Negative Strengthening

In this work, we explore the relationship between three different inferencestriggered by gradable adjectives. In particular, we look at scalar implicature andtwo competing inferences occuring under negation - scale reversal (indirect scalarimplicature) and a type of manner implicature called negative strengthening. In aseries of experiments, we test a variety of adjectival scales and explore correlationsbetween different inferences. Our results show that some scales are more likelyto generate scalar implicature while others lean more towards generating negativestrengthening. The extent to which scalar implicature and scale reversal correlate forthe same scales, in turn, is lower than expected. We discuss our findings with respectto the mechanisms underlying the three types of inferences and factors accountingfor differences across scales, with a focus on semantic distance, boundedness, thetype of standard of comparison and adjectival extremeness.

The Grammar of Prominence

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Una Stojnić
Keyword(s):  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Domain Restriction ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
Model Context ◽  
The Way

This chapter draws theoretical conclusions and outlines directions for future developments. It summarizes the key theoretical and philosophical upshots of the account developed in the book and discusses further extensions of this framework. It discusses how the account can be applied to model context-sensitivity of situated utterances, in a way that can offer insights into puzzles concerning disagreement in discourse and communication under ignorance, which have plagued standard accounts of context and content. Further, it outlines the way the account is to be extended and applied to various types of context-sensitive items, including relational expressions, gradable adjectives, and domain restriction.

Meaning change in Chinese: A numeral phrase construction from adjectives to superlatives to definite descriptions

Linguistics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawei Jin ◽  
Jun Chen
Keyword(s):  
Change Process ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Meaning Change ◽  
Truth Conditional

Abstract This paper analyzes a hitherto unnoticed semantic change process in Chinese, in which lexical (adjectival) materials develop into superlative operators, and subsequently turn into definiteness markers. Our analysis focuses on the semantic factors that underlie this meaning change trajectory. Specifically, we argue that frequent association of gradable adjectives with superlative implication leads to pragmatic strengthening in which the superlative implication conventionally enters the literal meaning. Furthermore, we show that a further change in the extension of the nominal part of superlative phrases leads to a maximality reanalysis that is compatible with the semantics of definite NPs. This paper contributes to the burgeoning field of applying truth-conditional semantics to theories of grammaticalization.

On the idiomatic nature of unproductive morphology

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Karen De Clercq ◽  
Guido Vanden Wyngaerd
Keyword(s):  
Classical Case ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Formal Relationship ◽  
Lexical Items

Abstract We present a case study in the marking of the negative prefix in French gradable adjectives, where the productive marker iN- alternates with a number of unproductive prefixes, like dé(s)-, dis-, mal-, mé(s)-. We treat this as a classical case of allomorphy, and present an account of the distribution of these allomorphs in terms of the nanosyntactic mechanism of pointers, by which lexical items may point to other, existing, lexical items in the postsyntactic lexicon. We claim that unproductive lexical items are not directly accessible for the spellout mechanism, but only indirectly, via pointers. We show how the analysis accounts for lexicalised semantics in derivations, as well as cases where the formal relationship between derivational pairs is not concatenative, but substitutive.

Cognitive processing of scalar implicatures with Chinese gradable adjectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-403
Author(s):  
Si Liu ◽  
Yi Yang
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Gradable Adjective ◽  
Background Belief ◽  
Default Model

Abstract In previous research comparing the Context-driven Model with the Default Model of meaning processing, the former was preferred. It predicts that contexts play an exclusively decisive role in meaning processing, whereas the latter holds that the inference of literal meaning generally goes through, unless it is subsequently defaulted or cancelled by the context it is associated with. The Standardization Model, which we added to our experiments, highlights that implicatures are figured out from standardized forms typically based on the mutual background belief and speaker’s intention. We tested whether Chinese people’s processing of the gradable adjective scale <hot, burning> conformed more to the Context-driven Model, the Default Model, or the Standardization Model. The results demonstrated that the Standardization Model is the most acceptable among the three. The findings of this study, which is the first study using the experimental paradigm on Chinese gradable adjectives, highlighted a need for further studies to investigate the same questions with different languages and cultures.

Antonym adjective pairs and prosodic iconicity: evidence from letter replications in an English blogger corpus

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Fuchs ◽  
Egor Savin ◽  
Stephanie Solt ◽  
Cornelia Ebert ◽  
Manfred Krifka
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Temporal Extent

AbstractWhile the general assumption has long been that natural languages exhibit an arbitrary pairing of form and meaning, there is increasing empirical evidence that iconicity in language is not uncommon. One example from spoken language involves iconic prosodic modulation, i.e. the changing of prosodic features such as duration and fundamental frequency to express meanings such as size and speed. In this paper, we use data from an English social media corpus, with 140 million words written by 19,320 bloggers, to investigate a counterpart to iconic prosodic modulation in written language, namely letter replications (e.g. loooong). We examine pairs of gradable adjectives such as short/long, tiny/huge and fast/slow, finding a higher frequency of letter replications for adjectives associated with greater size or spatial/temporal extent. We did not find an iconic effect on the number of replicated letters. Our results show evidence for iconic prosody in written language, and further demonstrate that social media databases offer an excellent opportunity to investigate naturalistic written language.

scholarly journals Making Sense of Big Textual Data for Health Care: Findings from the Section on Clinical Natural Language Processing

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 228-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Névéol ◽  
P. Zweigenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Coreference Resolution ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Textual Data ◽  
Clinical Natural Language Processing

Summary Objectives: To summarize recent research and present a selection of the best papers published in 2016 in the field of clinical Natural Language Processing (NLP). Method: A survey of the literature was performed by the two section editors of the IMIA Yearbook NLP section. Bibliographic databases were searched for papers with a focus on NLP efforts applied to clinical texts or aimed at a clinical outcome. Papers were automatically ranked and then manually reviewed based on titles and abstracts. A shortlist of candidate best papers was first selected by the section editors before being peer-reviewed by independent external reviewers. Results: The five clinical NLP best papers provide a contribution that ranges from emerging original foundational methods to transitioning solid established research results to a practical clinical setting. They offer a framework for abbreviation disambiguation and coreference resolution, a classification method to identify clinically useful sentences, an analysis of counseling conversations to improve support to patients with mental disorder and grounding of gradable adjectives. Conclusions: Clinical NLP continued to thrive in 2016, with an increasing number of contributions towards applications compared to fundamental methods. Fundamental work addresses increasingly complex problems such as lexical semantics, coreference resolution, and discourse analysis. Research results translate into freely available tools, mainly for English.

scholarly journals The Demandingness of Virtue

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Weston Siscoe
Keyword(s):  
Small Degree ◽  
Maximal Degree ◽  
Major Difficulty ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Virtuous Life ◽  
Way Of Thinking

How demanding is the virtuous life?  Can virtue exist alongside hints of vice?  Is it possible to be virtuous within a vicious society?  A line of thinking running through Diogenes and the Stoics is that even a hint of corruption is inimical to virtue, that participating in a vicious society makes it impossible for a person to be virtuous.  One response to this difficulty is to claim that virtue is a threshold concept, that context sets a threshold for what is considered virtuous.  On this way of thinking, what counts as virtuous in one society may be more demanding than what passes for virtuous in another.  This response seems plausible when considering that virtue-theoretic terms like `honest' are gradable adjectives.  Many gradable adjectives, like `tall' and `expensive,' have contextual thresholds that shift depending on the situation, and so is tenable that virtue-theoretic adjectives might function with contextual thresholds as well.   A major difficulty for this response, however, is that virtue terms are absolute gradable adjectives, a variety of gradable adjectives that do not require a contextual threshold.  Absolute gradable adjectives instead draw their truth conditions from their maximal degree, suggesting that Diogenes and the Stoics were correct to think that virtue is incompatible with even a small degree of vice.

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