Adjectives And Adverbs: Syntax, Semantics, And Discourse

In this volume leading researchers present new work on the semantics and pragmatics of adjectives and adverbs, and their interfaces with syntax. Its concerns include the semantics of gradability; the relationship between adjectival scales and verbal aspect; the relationship between meaning and the positions of adjectives and adverbs in nominal and verbal projections; and the fine-grained semantics of different subclasses of adverbs and adverbs. Its goals are to provide a comprehensive vision of the linguistically significant structural and interpretive properties of adjectives and adverbs, to highlight the similarities between these two categories, and to signal the importance of a careful and detailed integration of lexical and compositional semantics. The editors open the book with an overview of current research before introducing and contextualizing the remaining chapters. The work is aimed at scholars and advanced students of syntax, semantics, formal pragmatics, and discourse. It will also appeal to researchers in philosophy, psycholinguistics, and language acquisition interested in the syntax and semantics of adjectives and adverbs. Review: In sum, the articles in this book offer an excellent reflection of the current state of the field, even without aiming at comprehensive coverage. All of the authors take great care in laying out their data and applying to them a standard series of tests for grammaticality, distinctness of readings, coherency in discourse, and entailment, reflecting excellent standards of empirical argumentation. Regine Eckardt, University of Gottingen, writing for Project Muse Another pleasant feature of the overall collection is that all of the authors develop their analyses against a range of background theories in (minimalist) syntax, (truth-conditional) semantics, and compatible pragmatic frameworks that, though all different in focus, could optimistically be viewed as belonging to one homogeneous paradigm. This allows the reader to contrast hypotheses of different chapters with each other. The differences that at times arise from such comparisons will arouse the readers interest in the topic. Regine Eckardt, University of Gottingen, writing for Project Muse ...hold[s] interest for semanticists, syntacticians and other theoretical linguists alike... Aniko Csirmaz, Lingustics Table of Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. The Position of Adjectives and Other Phrasal Modifiers in the Decomposition of DP; 3. Ezafe and the Deep Position of Nominal Modifiers; 4. Meaning-Form Correlations and Adjective Position in Spanish; 5. Nonrestrictive Modifiers in Nonparenthetical Positions; 6. Adjectives and Degree Modification; 7. Measure of Change: The Adjectival Core of Degree Achievements; 8. Aspectual Composition With Degrees; 9. Manner Modification of State Verbs; 10. Towards Flexible Types With Constraints for Manner and Factive Adverbs; 11. Lexical Semantics and Pragmatics of Evaluative Adverbs; 12. Discourse Adjectives