Abstract:

We present a novel semantic and conversational framework for theorizing about metalinguistic gradable constructions. Such constructions include metalinguistic comparatives, like ‘Pluto is more an asteroid than a planet’, as well as equatives, superlatives, degree modifications, and more. To the extent that metalinguistic gradability has been discussed in the linguistic and philosophical literature, the focus has been on metalinguistic comparatives almost exclusively. We expand our earlier account of metalinguistic comparatives (Rudolph & Kocurek, 2020) to cover a broader range of metalinguistic gradable constructions. On our view, these all serve in various ways to express speakers' relative commitments to different linguistic interpretations.

Biographies:

Alexander W. Kocurek is an assistant professor in the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. His main research interests are in philosophical logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology, focusing in particular on issues surrounding counterfactuals, hyperintensionality, identity, expressivism, and metametaphysics. In 2018, he earned his PhD in the Group in Logic and Methodology of Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rachel Rudolph is an assistant professor in the philosophy department at Auburn University. She received her PhD in philosophy from UC Berkeley in 2019. Her main research areas are philosophy of language and metaethics. She is especially interested in subjective language, disagreement, metalinguistic communication, conceptual engineering, and social generics.