Such aspectual verbs and degree modifiers can be treated as scalar expressions with lower-bounded (‘at least’) semantics (on scalar semantics, see Horn, 1972; Gazdar, 1979; Atlas and Levinson, 1981; Atlas, 1984; Grice, 1989; Levinson, 2000). In cases where this semantic content falls short of the informativeness and relevance expectations raised by the conversational exchange, the hearer is ent...