Comparatives and quantifiers

Quantifiers in Comparatives

Comparative Quantifiers and Plural Predication

Somewhat surprisingly, there is little work addressing this question even though there are two distinguished traditions each concerned with a subset of the paradigm. On the one hand, Generalized Quantifier Theory (GQT) offers an analysis of expressions as in (1)a,b as run of the mill quantifiers, while the theory of comparative constructions, analyzes expressions as in (1)d,e as amount comparat...

The Semantics of Comparatives and Other Degree Constructions

(1) is an example of an adjectival comparative. In it, the adjective important is flanked by more and a comparative clause headed by than. This article is a survey of recent ideas about the interpretation of comparatives, including (i) the underlying semantics based on the idea of a threshold; (ii) the interpretation of comparative clauses that include quantifiers (brighter than on many other d...

The Algebraic Structure of Amounts: Evidence from Comparatives

Heim [9] notes certain restrictions on quantifier intervention in comparatives and proposes an LF-constraint to account for this. I show that these restrictions are identical to constraints on intervention in wh-questions widely discussed under the heading of weak islands. I also show that Heim’s proposal is too restrictive: existential quantifiers can intervene. Both of these facts follow from...

The Adjective of Quantity Duo ‘many/much’ and Differential Comparatives in Mandarin Chinese*

This article discusses differential comparatives involving the adjective of quantity duo ‘many/much’ in Mandarin Chinese. We show that the obligatory construal of a postadjectival duo-phrase as a differential phrase rather than a degree modifier is due to the interaction of four factors: (i) gradable adjectives denote measure functions rather than relations between degrees and individuals, (ii)...