CAREER: Scalar Representations in Natural Language Semantics

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

The ability to establish orderings among objects and make comparisons between them according to the amount or degree to which they possess some gradable property is a basic component of human cognition. Natural languages reflect this fact: all languages have syntactic categories that express gradable concepts, and all languages have constructions that are used to make comparisons. 'Gradable' adjectives like 'tall', 'bright', 'beautiful', and so forth are canonical examples of such expressions, and have formed the central empirical domain for studies of grading in natural language. An important conclusion of this work is that natural language semantics must make reference to abstract representations of measurement, or 'scales'. A question that has not been seriously addressed, however, is whether scalar representations underlie the semantic properties of categories other than adjectives. This study will address this question through a systematic and comprehensive investigation of the role of scalar representations across categories. The primary focus will be on relations between adjectives and verbs, both because their core semantic properties are well understood, and because preliminary research points towards a regular relation between scale structure in adjectives and event structure in verbs. The study will also explore scalar representations in the prepositional and nominal domains. The empirical domain of the project will provide the foundation for an integrated three-quarter sequence in lexical semantics, formal semantics, and pragmatics, as well as a freshman seminar focusing on linguistic, cognitive, and philosophical questions about meaning. The project will also support graduate and undergraduate researcher assistants, providing an opportunity for supervised independent research on a topic that allows a range of variation in individual research focus. Finally, the project will introduce students and colleagues directly to contemporary research by bringing in outside scholars for guest lectures, and through a workshop on scalar representations in natural language.