2019Unpublished venueOpen access

The Semantics of Nouns Derived From Gradable Adjectives

David Nicolas

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Abstract

What semantics should we attribute to nouns like wisdom and generosity, which are derived from gradable adjectives? We show that, from a morphosyntactic standpoint, these nouns are mass nouns. This leads us to consider and answer the following questions. How are these nouns interpreted in their various uses? What formal representations may one associate with their interpretations? How do these depend on the semantics of the adjective? And where lies the semantic unity of nouns like wisdom and generosity with the more familiar concrete mass nouns, like wine and furniture?

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What this paper is about

What semantics should we attribute to nouns like wisdom and generosity, which are derived from gradable adjectives? We show that, from a morphosyntactic standpoint, these nouns are mass nouns. This leads us to consider and answer the following questions. How are these nouns interpreted in their various uses? What formal representations may one associate with their interpretations? How do these depend on the semantics of the adjective? And where lies the semantic unity of nouns like wisdom and generosity with the more familiar concrete mass nouns, like wine and furniture?

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Available abstract

What semantics should we attribute to nouns like wisdom and generosity, which are derived from gradable adjectives? We show that, from a morphosyntactic standpoint, these nouns are mass nouns. This leads us to consider and answer the following questions. How are these nouns interpreted in their various uses? What formal representations may one associate with their interpretations? How do these depend on the semantics of the adjective? And where lies the semantic unity of nouns like wisdom and generosity with the more familiar concrete mass nouns, like wine and furniture?

Key concepts: Noun, Generosity, Adjective, Linguistics, Proper noun, Semantics (computer science), Mathematics, Computer science

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