Modification [Hardcover]

An accessible guide to the linguistic semantics of adjectives, adverbs, gradability, vagueness, comparatives, and modification more generally.Modification offers a thorough and accessible exploration of what adjectives and adverbs mean, how they interact with what they modify, and how language expresses the inherent gradience of the world. An invaluable addition to the field for students and researchers in linguistics, the philosophy of language and psycholinguistics.Modification offers a thorough and accessible exploration of what adjectives and adverbs mean, how they interact with what they modify, and how language expresses the inherent gradience of the world. An invaluable addition to the field for students and researchers in linguistics, the philosophy of language and psycholinguistics.Modifiers and modification have been a major focus of inquiry for as long as the formal study of semantics has existed, and remain at the heart of major theoretical debates in the field. Modification offers comprehensive coverage of a wide range of topics, including vagueness and gradability, comparatives and degree constructions, the lexical semantics of adjectives and adverbs, crosscategorial regularities, and the relation between meaning and syntactic category. Morzycki guides the reader through the varied and sometimes mysterious phenomena surrounding modification and the ideas that have been proposed to account for them. Presenting disparate approaches in a consistent analytical framework, this accessibly written work, which includes an extensive glossary of technical terms, is essential reading for researchers and students of all levels in linguistics, the philosophy of language and psycholinguistics.1. Preliminaries; 2. The lexical semantics of adjectives: more than just scales; 3. Vagueness, degrees, and gradable predicates; 4. Comparatives and their kin; 5. Adverbs; 6. Crosscategorial concerns; 7. Taking stock.Morzycki's discussion of modification is a beautifully writtl³"