Scales and comparison classes

• Published in: Natural language semantics Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 169 - 190
• Main Author: Bale, Alan Clinton
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.06.2011; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adjectives; Animal scales; Comparison; Descriptive studies and applied theories; Equivalence relation; Grammatical clauses; Linguistic subordination; Linguistics; Mathematical functions; Philosophy of Language; Presuppositions; Scalarity; Semantics; Semantics and pragmatics; Snakes; Social Sciences; Syntactic structures; Syntax; Truth condition; Gradable adjectives; Quasi-order; Scales; Comparison classes; Linear order; Adjective; Truth condition; Semantics; Gradation; Presupposition; Logic; Comparative
• ISSN: 0925-854X; 1572-865X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11050-010-9068-0

This paper discusses comparison classes—sets that relativize the interpretation of gradable adjectives, often specified with for-clauses as in John is smart for a linguist. Such a discussion ultimately lends support to the thesis that scales, degrees, measure functions, and linear orders are grammatically derived from more basic relations between individuals. Three accounts of comparison classes are compared and evaluated. The first proposes that such classes serve as an argument to a function that determines a standard of comparison. The second maintains that these classes restrict the domain of a measure function used to map entities to degrees. The third proposes that these classes limit the kind of individuals that participate in a binary relation; this relation is then used in the construction of a scale and a measure function. It is this third account that is most consistent with the empirical data. It can explain how comparison classes fix a standard of comparison, induce presuppositions concerning the comparative subjects, and induce incommensurability in comparative constructions.