Degree Semantics - Einzelansicht

The class will provide an in-depth overview over degree-related semantic phenomena in natural language.

moodle: https://moodle2.uni-potsdam.de/course/view.php?id=30466

We will start out by sketching the basic formal analysis of intrinsically degree-related comparative ('taller than') and equative constructions ('as tall as') in von Stechow (1984) and Beck et al. (2011). Crucially, such expression types have led to the inclusion of a new type into the ontology of semantic types. The discussion will also touch upon of the quantificational nature of such expressions (type "dt,t") (Heim 2001).

The second part of the class will introduce some extensions and refinements to the basic picture: (i.) the formal properties of the underlying gradbale expressions, in English and German typically adjectives or adverbs (Kennedy & McNally 2005); (ii.) degree modification of nominal expressions (Schwarzschild 2006), and parallels between degrees in the adnominal and the adverbial domain (Doetjes 1997).

The third part will then turn to cross-linguistic differences in the expression of degree-sensitivity. The discussion will center on the differences between phrasal and clausal comparatives (Bhatt & Takahashi 2007), and it will introduce the parametric modell in Beck et al. (2011) which postulates a parametric difference between degree-sensitive and degree-insensitive languages (which lack degree-sensitivie expressions, such as comparatives altogether). In the remainder of the class, we will look at case studies of comparative and degree-related expressions in a range of languages (Iranian, Austronesian, Amerindian, Niger Congo), and we will finish with a look at a recent proposal (Bochnak et al. 2021) as to which the degree-sensitivity of languages is not absolute, but relative, depending on the size of the degree-sensitive functional inventory of a language.

The class will be held in hybrid mode, i.e. preferably in presence + online-streaming:

https://uni-potsdam.zoom.us/j/69422202736
Meeting-ID: 694 2220 2736
Kenncode: 87245950

Presence in class is subject to 3G-regulations and only possibly in the absence of symptoms of cold!