More on Quantifiers in Comparative Clauses

More on Quantifiers in Comparative Clauses

Goal: To give an explanation of the ban on downward entailing quantifiers (DE-Qs) in comparative clauses (c-clauses, cf. (1)) that is compatible with the solutions to the problem of quantifier 'scope' in c-clauses (cf. [I assume degree predicates are monotonic] (1)*Ann is taller than no/not all/few boys are. (2) Apparent generalization: B is F-er than Q is is true iff Q(λx. B is F-er than x is)...

Comparative Superlatives in Relative Clauses

Comparative Quantifiers and Plural Predication

Somewhat surprisingly, there is little work addressing this question even though there are two distinguished traditions each concerned with a subset of the paradigm. On the one hand, Generalized Quantifier Theory (GQT) offers an analysis of expressions as in (1)a,b as run of the mill quantifiers, while the theory of comparative constructions, analyzes expressions as in (1)d,e as amount comparat...

Quantifiers are incrementally interpreted in context, more than less.

Language interpretation is often assumed to be incremental. However, our studies of quantifier expressions in isolated sentences found N400 event-related brain potential (ERP) evidence for partial but not full immediate quantifier interpretation (Urbach & Kutas, 2010). Here we tested similar quantifier expressions in pragmatically supporting discourse contexts (Alex was an unusual toddler. Most...

Pragmatic effects in processing superlative and comparative quantifiers

I present and discuss results of the experiment in which I investigate processing of so-called superlative quantifiers, such as at most n and at least n (where n represents a bare numeral), as well as their (presumably) logically equivalent though linguistically different forms, i.e. the disjunctive and the comparative form. Generalized Quantifier Theory (GQT ) defines those superlative quantif...