Whamit!

The Weekly Newsletter of MIT Linguistics

LF Reading Group 11/4 - Agnes Bi (MIT)

Speaker: Agnes Bi (MIT)
Title: Scalar particles in comparatives (an informal discussion)
Time: Wednesday, November 4th, 1pm – 2pm

Abstract: Scalar particles in comparatives give rise to unexpected evaluative inferences, which vary depending on focus-placement:

  1. Alex is even taller than [Blake]F.    (⇝ Both Alex and Blake are tall)
  2. [Alex]F is even taller than Blake.    (⇝ Both Alex and Blake are short)
  3. Alex is even [taller]F than Blake.    (⇝ Alex exceeds Blake on some other scale as well)

I will argue in favor of hardwiring a positive condition in the semantics of even along the lines of Daniels & Greenberg 2020 and, generally, of Greenberg 2015, 2018. Moreover, I would like to explore similar patterns in Mandarin with the scalar particle hai, which seems to be largely underspecified and to be at play in the full set of readings.