Superlative-modified numerals and negation: A multiply negotiable cost

Abstract

Comparative-modified numerals (CMNs) and superlative-modified numerals (SMNs) are reported to exhibit a polarity sensitivity contrast: unlike CMNs, the use of SMNs is said to be sensitive to embedding under negation. This contrast is however neither well studied nor well understood, such that the existing views in the literature disagree vastly on both the basic facts and related expectations. In this paper we investigate this contrast in three offline experiments. We show that there is strong empirical support for this reported contrast under negation, but none of the existing analyses of the contrast can capture it in full, though we do seem to require insights from each.