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The Semantics of Gradability, Vagueness, and Scale Structure

Experimental Perspectives

  • Includes pioneering studies of the online processing of various aspects of adjectival semantics
  • Provides new quantitative evidence concerning hypotheses from formal semantic theories
  • Promotes the interaction between researchers in linguistics, psycholinguistics, psychology and philosophy on the semantics of natural language

Part of the book series: Language, Cognition, and Mind (LCAM, volume 4)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
  2. Gradability, Vagueness, and Scale Structure: From the Armchair to the Lab

    • Elena Castroviejo, Louise McNally, Galit W. Sassoon
    Pages 1-24
  3. Online Processing of “Real” and “Fake”: The Cost of Being Too Strong

    • Petra B. Schumacher, Patrick Brandt, Hanna Weiland-Breckle
    Pages 93-111
  4. Gradable Nouns as Concepts Without Prototypes

    • Hanna de Vries
    Pages 113-147
  5. Education as a Source of Vagueness in Criteria and Degree

    • Steven Verheyen, Gert Storms
    Pages 149-167
  6. Perceived Informativity and Referential Effects of Contrast in Adjectivally Modified NPs

    • Helena Aparicio, Christopher Kennedy, Ming Xiang
    Pages 199-220
  7. Decomposition and Processing of Negative Adjectival Comparatives

    • Daniel Tucker, Barbara Tomaszewicz, Alexis Wellwood
    Pages 243-273
  8. Cumulative Comparison: Experimental Evidence for Degree Cumulation

    • Rick Nouwen, Jakub Dotlačil
    Pages 275-293

About this book

This volume is the first to focus specifically on experimental studies of the semantics of gradability, scale structure and vagueness. It presents support for and challenges to current formal analyses of these phenomena in view of experimentally collected data, highlighting the ways semantic and pragmatic theory can benefit from experimental methodologies. The papers in the volume contribute to an explicit and detailed account of the use, representation, and online processing of gradable and vague expressions using various kinds of controlled speaker judgment tasks, eye tracking, and ERP. The aim is to strengthen the foundations of experimental semantics and promote interaction between linguists, psycholinguists, psychologists, and philosophers who are interested in the semantics of natural language. Using data representing different languages and a variety of nominal and adjectival constructions, including degree modification and comparatives, the contributions address scale-based classifications of gradable predicates, such as the absolute vs. relative distinction; the nature of the standards for applicability of gradable expressions and the ways in which standards are determined; the nature of dimensions and multidimensionality in the meaning of scalar expressions; and the role of embodiment, subjectivity, and sociolinguistic considerations in the use and understanding of gradable expressions.


Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

    Elena Castroviejo

  • Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    Louise McNally

  • Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Galit Weidman Sassoon

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Semantics of Gradability, Vagueness, and Scale Structure

  • Book Subtitle: Experimental Perspectives

  • Editors: Elena Castroviejo, Louise McNally, Galit Weidman Sassoon

  • Series Title: Language, Cognition, and Mind

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77791-7

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-77790-0Published: 06 July 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08541-4Published: 01 February 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-77791-7Published: 20 June 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2364-4109

  • Series E-ISSN: 2364-4117

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 293

  • Topics: Semantics, Cognitive Psychology, Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access