Against Lexical Self-Reference

Abstract

This squib discusses a problem that arises when a standard degree-based semantics for intensifiers is combined with a second-order contextualist semantics for the predicate average on its concrete reading. In a nutshell, the combination requires that the argument of totally average be simultaneously average in every respect and not average at all in one particular respect. This problem is claimed to arise from allowing (in a sense) the denotation of average to refer to itself; the problem is then solved by prohibiting (by a combination of semantic and pragmatic means) self-reference at the lexical level.