Adjectives and Adverbs: Syntax, Semantics, and Discourse (Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics (19))

In this volume leading researchers present new work on the semantics and pragmatics of adjectives and adverbs, and their interfaces with syntax. Its concerns include the semantics of gradability; the relationship between adjectival scales and verbal aspect; the relationship between meaning and the positions of adjectives and adverbs in nominal and verbal projections; and the fine-grained semantics of different subclasses of adverbs and adverbs. Its goals are to provide a comprehensive vision of the linguistically significant structural and interpretive properties of adjectives and adverbs, to highlight the similarities between these two categories, and to signal the importance of a careful and detailed integration of lexical and compositional semantics.

The editors open the book with an overview of current research before introducing and contextualizing the remaining chapters. The work is aimed at scholars and advanced students of syntax, semantics, formal pragmatics, and discourse. It will also appeal to researchers in philosophy, psycholinguistics, and language acquisition interested in the syntax and semantics of adjectives and adverbs.

Louise McNally is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. She is the author of The Semantics of the English Existential Construction (Garland, 1997) and co-editor, with Peter Culicover, of Syntax and Semantics 29: The Limits of Syntax (Academic Press, 1998). Her publications include articles on various aspects of adjectival semantics, the compositional semantics of modifiers, and the interface of semantics with syntax and pragmatics.
Christopher Kennedy is Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Chicago. He is the author of Projecting the Adjective: The Syntax and Semantics of Gradability and Comparison (Garland, 1999) and is a General Editor with Chris Barker of the Oxford series Studies in Semantics and Pragmatics. His publications and research investigate various aspects of scalar meaning and syntax, along with other topics pertaining to the syntax-semantics interface.