Docs / Semantics / Degree / Adjective
import Linglib.Semantics.Degree.Adjective · namespace Degree
This file defines Degree.GradableAdjective, a syntactic adjective together with its degree
semantics. The scale an adjective measures on and its positive standard, whose kind is Kennedy's
class of the adjective, are read off its Degree.Gradability, its dimension, polarity and any
lexically fixed standard, so that wet and dry share one scale and differ only in pole. The
file also defines antonym pairs and the ways a multidimensional adjective binds its dimensions.
An antonym pair is contradictory when its poles take complementary standards, the minimum and the maximum of one scale, as Kennedy and McNally explain for open and closed. A pair of extreme adjectives such as pristine and filthy leaves a gap even on a closed scale, as Alexandropoulou and Gotzner observe, since its standards lie beyond those of the weak pair; the relation is read off the standards rather than stored. How a standard is interpreted, as a literal endpoint or relative to a contextual range, is left to the studies.
GradableAdjective: a syntactic adjective with its degree semantics.GradableAdjective.boundedness: the scale an adjective measures on.GradableAdjective.standard: the positive standard of an adjective.AntonymPair: the two polar adjectives of one scale.AntonymPair.ComplementaryStandards: the poles take the minimum and the maximum, and so are
contradictory, where any other pair leaves a gap and is contrary; without lexical standards
this holds exactly on a half-closed scale
(AntonymPair.complementaryStandards_iff_of_lexicalStandard_none).DimensionBindingType: how a multidimensional adjective binds its dimensions.DirectedScale, GradableAdjective.directedScale?: the ordered set an adjective's degrees
belong to.A spatial configuration type classifies the spatial state an adjective describes in a resultative construction (Levin 2026). Only adjectives describing spatially instantiated states license intransitive push open resultatives.
Derives DecidableEq, Repr.
Used by GradableAdjective, AntonymPair
A gradable adjective is a syntactic adjective together with its degree semantics, namely any lexically fixed standard, its resultative spatial configuration (Levin 2026) and its evaluative valence (Nouwen 2024). Its scale and positive standard are derived from its dimension and polarity.
The lexically fixed positive standard, for a partial adjective on a closed scale or for an adjective on an open scale whose standard its lexicon fixes, such as the necessity standard of decent (Beltrama 2025); none takes the scale's default.
Resultative spatial-configuration class (Levin 2026).
The evaluative valence, which determines the degree of an intensifier formed on the adjective (Nouwen 2024).
Derives Repr.
Built from
Used by GradableAdjective.gradability?, GradableAdjective.boundedness, GradableAdjective.standard, GradableAdjective.admits_standard, GradableAdjective.directedScale?, AntonymPair.pos, AntonymPair.neg
Used in Fragments/English/Adjectives, Bobaljik2012, Bresnan1973, HayKennedyLevin1999, KennedyLevin2008 and 4 more
A directed scale is a comparison scale with a polarity. Cresswell 1976 reads it as a relation ordering degrees upward or, for short, downward; for Kennedy 1999 it is the ordered set of the positive or the negative extents on the scale. Comparison is defined only within one.
Used by GradableAdjective.directedScale?
Used in Fragments/English/MeasurePhrases, Cresswell1976, Kennedy1999
The degree semantics of an adjective, none for a non-gradable one.
Built from
Used by GradableAdjective.boundedness, GradableAdjective.standard
Used in Koev2026
The scale an adjective measures on, open for a non-gradable adjective, which has none.
Built from ,
Used by GradableAdjective.admits_standard
Used in AlexandropoulouGotzner2024a, HayKennedyLevin1999, Kennedy2007, KennedyLevin2008, SauerlandStateva2011
The positive standard of an adjective, contextual for a non-gradable one.
Built from ,
Used by GradableAdjective.admits_standard, AntonymPair.ComplementaryStandards
Used in AlexandropoulouGotzner2024a
Built from , ,
The directed scale of an adjective: its comparison scale with its polarity.
Built from ,
Used in Cresswell1976
An antonym pair is the positive and the negative polar adjective of one scale, each the
other's lexical antonym. The shared data is stored once, and the two adjectives are
AntonymPair.pos and AntonymPair.neg.
The scale both poles measure on.
The positive pole's surface form.
The negative pole's surface form.
The positive pole's comparison paradigm.
The negative pole's comparison paradigm.
The positive pole's lexically fixed standard, when it departs from the scale's default, is for instance the minimum for a partial adjective like open on a closed scale, or the extreme standard of gigantic.
The negative pole's lexically fixed standard, when it departs from the dual's default.
The positive pole's evaluative valence; the negative pole's is its flip.
The resultative spatial-configuration class the poles share.
Built from
Used by AntonymPair.pos, AntonymPair.neg, AntonymPair.pos_polarity, AntonymPair.neg_polarity, AntonymPair.pos_antonymForm, AntonymPair.neg_antonymForm, AntonymPair.ComplementaryStandards, AntonymPair.instDecidableComplementaryStandards, AntonymPair.complementaryStandards_iff_of_lexicalStandard_none
Used in Fragments/English/Adjectives, AlexandropoulouGotzner2024a
p.pos is the positive pole of the pair.
The definition is too large to print here; read it in the source.
Built from ,
Used by AntonymPair.pos_polarity, AntonymPair.pos_antonymForm, AntonymPair.neg_antonymForm, AntonymPair.ComplementaryStandards
Used in Fragments/English/Adjectives, AlexandropoulouGotzner2024a
p.neg is the negative pole of the pair, which measures on the dual scale.
The definition is too large to print here; read it in the source.
Built from ,
Used by AntonymPair.neg_polarity, AntonymPair.pos_antonymForm, AntonymPair.neg_antonymForm, AntonymPair.ComplementaryStandards
Used in Fragments/English/Adjectives
Built from ,
Built from ,
Built from , ,
Built from , ,
The poles take complementary standards, one the minimum and the other the maximum, so that they are contradictory and denying one asserts the other, as for wet and dry (Kennedy 2007 (47)). Any other pair leaves a gap, a relative pair (large, small) by its contextual standards and an extreme pair (pristine, filthy) by standards beyond those of the weak pair (Morzycki 2012; Alexandropoulou & Gotzner 2024a, fn. 11).
Built from , , ,
Used by AntonymPair.instDecidableComplementaryStandards, AntonymPair.complementaryStandards_iff_of_lexicalStandard_none
Used in AlexandropoulouGotzner2024a, AlexandropoulouGotzner2024b
Built from ,
Without lexically fixed standards, the poles take complementary standards exactly when the scale has one endpoint. An open scale gives both a contextual standard, which leaves a gap, and a totally closed one gives both the maximum, as for full and empty.
Built from ,
A multidimensional adjective binds its dimensions conjunctively, disjunctively, or either way depending on context (Sassoon 2013).
The entity meets the standard in every dimension, as for healthy.
The entity meets the standard in some dimension, as for sick.
Context decides between the two, as for intelligent.
Derives Repr, DecidableEq.
Used by DimensionBindingType.negate, negate_involutive, predictedBinding
Used in DAmbrosioHedden2024, Sassoon2013
b.negate is the binding type predicted for a negative antonym whose positive counterpart
binds by b, by De Morgan's laws under the negation theory of antonymy.
Built from
Used by negate_involutive
Used in Sassoon2013
Built from ,
The binding type a standard predicts is conjunctive for the maximum standard of a total adjective, disjunctive for the minimum standard of a partial one, and mixed for a contextual standard (Sassoon 2013, Hypothesis set 3, (23)).
Built from
Used in Sassoon2013