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The Algebraic Structure of Amounts: Evidence from Comparatives

  • Conference paper
Interfaces: Explorations in Logic, Language and Computation (ESSLLI 2008, ESSLLI 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 6211))

Abstract

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 algebraic semantic theory of weak islands in Szabolcsi & Zwarts [25], which assigns different algebraic structures to amounts and counting expressions. This theory also makes novel predictions about the interaction of degree operators with conjunction and disjunction, which I show to be correct. Issues involving modal interveners [9], interval semantics for degrees [23,1], and density [4] are also considered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York University,  

    Daniel Lassiter

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  1. Daniel Lassiter
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford University, Stanford,, CA, USA

    Thomas Icard

  2. Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Reinhard Muskens

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Lassiter, D. (2010). The Algebraic Structure of Amounts: Evidence from Comparatives. In: Icard, T., Muskens, R. (eds) Interfaces: Explorations in Logic, Language and Computation. ESSLLI ESSLLI 2008 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6211. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14729-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14729-6_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-14728-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-14729-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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