Title: Age is not just a number
Time: Wednesday, May 6th, 1pm – 2pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract: We start from constructions where a proper name modifies a gradable adjective, as in (1).
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Eyal is Joe Biden old.
While these examples initially may suggest a simple degree interpretation, i.e. mapping the individual to their degree on the relevant scale. We show that this cannot be the full story. We examine the conditions of use for these sentences and show that these constructions systematically differ from measure phrases and equatives. They crucially permit felicitous uses in contexts where the target individual does not match the named individual’s absolute degree.
We propose that this construction supports an analysis where comparison classes are structured objects with a contextually provided ordering on a partition of individuals in the comparison class. Following mechanisms from Bale (2006, 2008) we propose that a “scale” is built from the modifying proper name. Informally, A is B-adj means that A occupies a position in A’s comparison class that corresponds to B’s position on the constructed “scale”.