Degree modifiers and monotonicity

This paper concerns the question of what it takes to be a degree modifier.1 In particular, I propose an account of why only certain predicates can be assigned degree manipulating functions. The proposal relies on a semantic typology of predicates which is based on the (monotonicity) inferences licensed by such predicates. The main observation is that on the assumption that any predicate could in principle be turned into an adverb of degree, only a strict subset will result in informative interpretations.