Intersective Adjectives Research Articles

(Non-)Intersective adjectives and root suppletion

AbstractIn this paper I examine certain gradable adjectives in Serbian, whose suppletive comparative forms display unexpected semantic properties. In particular, while these adjectives are ambiguous between intersective and non-intersective readings in the positive form, their suppletive comparative and superlative forms are limited to the non-intersective interpretation. These facts show, I argue, that in a theory like Distributed Morphology either adjectival roots or category-assigning heads they combine with come in semantic subtypes (i.e. are specified for certain semantic properties; Harley 2005, Anagnostopoulou and Samioti 2014). I show how the analysis I propose explains semantic properties of change-of-state verbs derived from these adjectives and why these adjectives are restricted to the intersective interpretation when their positive form takes the long-form (definite) inflection. I also provide an illustration of how Arregi and Nevins’s (2014) analysis of the so-called “disuppletive” roots, suchworse/badder, can deal with the facts presented in this paper. Finally, I discuss implications of these facts in the context of Bobaljik’s (2012) approach to suppletive comparative morphology.

Internal Wiring of Cartesian Verbs and Prepositions

Categorical compositional distributional semantics (CCDS) allows one to compute the meaning of phrases and sentences from the meaning of their constituent words. A type-structure carried over from the traditional categorial model of grammar a la Lambek becomes a 'wire-structure' that mediates the interaction of word meanings. However, CCDS has a much richer logical structure than plain categorical semantics in that certain words can also be given an 'internal wiring' that either provides their entire meaning or reduces the size their meaning space. Previous examples of internal wiring include relative pronouns and intersective adjectives. Here we establish the same for a large class of well-behaved transitive verbs to which we refer as Cartesian verbs, and reduce the meaning space from a ternary tensor to a unary one. Some experimental evidence is also provided.

On Logics of Transitive Verbs With and Without Intersective Adjectives

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the natural logic program which invents logics in natural language. This study presents two logics: a logical system called d R(∀,∃) containing transitive verbs and a more expressive logical system R(∀,∃,IA) containing both transitive verbs and intersective adjectives.The paper offers three different set-theoretic semantics which are equivalent for the logics.

The multifaceted nature of denominal adjectives

This study proposes a fine-grained classification and analysis of French denominal adjectives based mainly on the semantic relationships that exist between the noun the adjective modifies (the head-noun) and the noun it is derived from. Capitalizing on previous works, it is argued that these relationships are intrinsic whenever they focus on a dimension proper to the referent of the head-noun, but they are extrinsic whenever this referent is conceived of as a participant in an event denoted either by the head or the modified noun. After a brief characterization of denominal adjectives in relation with other adjectives, the article lists the variety of meanings these adjectives exhibit in French and tries to shed light on the reasons why only some of them sound acceptable when occurring with a degree adverb or in a predicative structure. In the account sketched in the final section, denominal adjectives are dealt with in the same way as intersective adjectives.

"Different" as a Restriction on Skolem Functions

An analysis of different as in every child watched a different movie is developed that is based on an analysis of indefinites in terms of Skolemised choice functions. The internal reading of the sentence, which expresses that the movies covary with the children, is analysed as stating that the children can be mapped injectively to movies they watched. This is achieved by letting the Skolemised choice function that interprets the indefinite pick, for each child, an element from the set of movies that the same function does not assign to any other individual, which allows for analysing different in a manner parallelling ordinary intersective adjectives. Simply replacing this set of movies with the set of contextually salient movies then also gives the external reading. An implementation at the syntax-semantics interface is provided, employing Lexical Resource Semantics.

Scalar adjectives and the temporal unfolding of semantic composition: An MEG investigation

A growing body of research implicates the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) for combinatorial semantic processing. However, magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies have revealed this activity to be timed quite early, at 200–250ms, preceding the most common time window for lexical-semantic effects. What type of semantic composition could the LATL perform at 200–250ms? We hypothesized that the LATL computes an early stage of composition, taking as its input only the most readily available lexical-semantic information. To test this, we varied the context-sensitivity of prenominal adjectives, postulating that only context-insensitive intersective adjectives (e.g., dead, Italian) should compose in an early time window, whereas the composition of context-sensitive scalar adjectives (e.g., fast, large) should be delayed until the interpretation of the subsequent noun is fully determined. Consistent with this, early combinatory effects in left temporal cortex were observed only for intersective adjectives, though in this study the effects were somewhat more posterior than in prior reports. Overall, our results suggest multiple stages of semantic composition, of which the LATL may index the earliest.

Adjective Classes and Syntactic Ordering Restrictions

I argue there are four classes of adjectives relevant to syntactic ordering: predicative/intersective, predicative/non-intersective, non-predicative, classifying (Svenonius 2008, Alexiadou et al 2007), and previous proposals have not identified the relevant semantic dimensions. Among the properties of gradability, mass/count, and intersectivity, only intersectivity is syntactically relevant. The four classes of adjectives are motivated by the distribution of ordered/non-ordered adjectives, scope effects with certain adjective-pairs, PP-modification, N-dropping and comparatives (Bouchard 2002, Higginbotham 1985, Kennedy 1999). DP structure involves 1) merging the classifying adjective with pronounced N, 2) merging intersective adjectives with N, 3) merging non-intersective adjectives with a silent copy of N.

Achieving incremental semantic interpretation through contextual representation

While much work has been done investigating the role of context in the incremental processing of syntactic indeterminacies, relatively little is known about online semantic interpretation. The experiments in this article made use of the eye-tracking paradigm with spoken language and visual contexts in order to examine how, and when listeners make use of contextually-defined contrast in interpreting simple prenominal adjectives. Experiment 1 focused on intersective adjectives. Experiment 1A provided further evidence that intersective adjectives are processed incrementally. Experiment 1B compared response times to follow instructions such as ` Pick up the blue comb' under conditions where there were two blue objects (e.g. a blue pen and a blue comb), but only one of these objects had a contrasting member in the display. Responses were faster to objects with a contrasting member, establishing that the listeners initially assume a contrastive interpretation for intersective adjectives. Experiments 2 and 3 focused on vague scalar adjectives examining the time course with which listeners establish contrast for scalar adjectives such as tall using information provided by the head noun (e.g. glass) and information provided by the visual context. Use of head-based information was examined by manipulating the typicality of the target object (e.g. whether it was a good or poor example of a tall glass. Use of context-dependent contrast was examined by either having only a single glass in the display (the no contrast condition) or a contrasting object (e.g. a smaller glass). The pattern of results indicated that listeners interpreted the scalar adjective incrementally taking into account context-specific contrast prior to encountering the head. Moreover, the presence of a contrasting object, sharply reduced, and in some conditions completely eliminated, typicality effects. The results suggest a language processing system in which semantic interpretation, as well as syntactic processing, is conducted incrementally, with early integration of contextual information.

Inalienable possession in copulative contexts and the DP-structure

Following the view in Kayne (1993) according to which possessive sentences involve a copulative head with a D/PP complement, this paper investigates possessive contexts in Spanish which involve, apart from a possessor and a possessum argument, adjectival modification. These contexts will be shown to give raise to a case of have/be alternation. The choice of the copulative head is associated to different word order in the post-copular material, as well as to different agreement on the adjectival head. I argue that this cluster of properties follows from two different syntactic derivations leading to the raising of the possessor argument to the nominative checking position of the copulative possessive sentence. Moreover, based on the observation that only scalar adjectives are allowed in inalienable possessive sentences with be copulas, whereas both scalar and intersective adjectives are possible in their have counterparts, I will develop an account of the syntactic conditions under which scalar and intersective readings arise. Finally, it will be argued that possessive sentences involving transitory possession structurally differ from those involving permanent possession. In particular, I will propose that the adjective and the possessum argument form a small clause in the former case, whereas in the latter, the projection containing the possessum is generated as a complement of the adjective. The set of proposals in this paper have interesting consequences not only for the syntax of possessive contexts, but also for the syntax of DP's. For instance, from the approach developed here it follows that adjectival modification can be licensed through overt movement of a projection containing the modified noun to the specifier of the projection headed by the adjective. Therefore, we should allow for DP-internal raising of the noun as part of a raising XP.