Less-comparatives must be less ambiguous than exactly-differentials, experimental data shows

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.3.5825

Keywords:

Scope Ambiguity, Degree Semantics, Comparatives, Modals, Acceptability Judgments

Abstract

Scope mobility of comparative operators has been claimed to surface in a narrow class of specific cases where intensional verbs are combined with less-comparatives or exactly-differentials. Though not uncontroversial and dependent on subtle judgments, this type of ambiguity influenced subsequent compositional semantic analyses of comparatives and was also used as a diagnostics for scope mobility of the comparative operator in cross-linguistic studies. We use judgment data from three acceptability rating experiments to empirically test the (un)availablity of this ambiguity in German and English. We discover an empirical difference between exactly-differentials and less-comparatives which is unexpected under the standard approach to the semantics of comparatives. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings and highlight recent proposals that can account for our data.

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Published

2025-01-24

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Section

Articles