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The Meaning of More (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,490
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The Meaning of More (Paperback)
Series: Oxford Studies in Semantics and Pragmatics, 12
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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This book reimagines the compositional semantics of comparative
sentences using words such as more, as, too, and others. The book's
central thesis entails a rejection of a fundamental assumption of
degree semantic frameworks: that gradable adjectives like tall
lexicalize functions from individuals to degrees, i.e., measure
functions. Alexis Wellwood argues that comparative expressions in
English themselves introducemeasure functions; this is the case
whether that morphology targets adjectives, as intaller or more
intelligent; nouns, as in more coffee, more coffees; verbs, such as
run more, jump more; or expressions of other categories.
Furthermore, she suggests that expressions that comfortably and
meaningfully appear in the comparative form should be distinguished
from those that do not in terms of a general notion of
"measurability": a measurable predicate has a domain of application
with non-trivial structure. This notion unifies the independently
motivated distinctions between, for example, gradable and
non-gradable adjectives, mass and count nouns, singular and plural
noun phrases, and telic and atelic verb phrases. Based on careful
examination of the distribution of dimensions for comparison within
the class of measurable predicates, she ties the selection of
measure functions to the specific nature and structure of the
domain entities targeted for measurement. The book ultimately
explores how, precisely, we should understand semantic theories
that invoke the "nature" of domain entities: does the theory depend
for its explanation on features of metaphysical reality, or
something else? Such questions are especially pertinent in light of
a growing body of research in cognitive science exploring the
understanding and acquisition of comparative sentences.
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