BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Department of Linguistics//NONSGML Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://linguistics.ubc.ca/events/event/ X-WR-CALDESC:Department of Linguistics - Events BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20251008T2158Z-1759960681.5944-EO-17354-27@10.19.146.23 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTAMP:20260809T210824Z CREATED:20220812T152220Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230309T195027Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230310T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230310T170000 SUMMARY: Colloquium – Andrea Beltrama (University of Pennsylvania) DESCRIPTION: Andrea Beltrama (University of Pennsylvania) will give a virtu al talk. See the abstract and Zoom information below. When is a pizza accep table? Qualitative assessments and the puzzle of mild adjectives  When asse ssing the quality of objects\, we often choose to use expressions that conv ey a mildly positive degree of appreciation. This is illustrated\, for inst ance\, by the use […] X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Andrea Beltrama (University of Pennsylvani a) will give a virtual talk. See the abstract and Zoom information below.

When is a pizza acceptable? Qualitative assessments a nd the puzzle of mild adjectives 

When assessing the qu ality of objects\, we often choose to use expressions that convey a  mildly positive degree of appreciation. Th is is illustrated\, for instance\, by the use of adjectives such as  decent\, acceptable\, or ok to describe a pizza (in (1)). In virtue of their mildness\, these adjectives contras t with expressions that are normally used to express stronger appreciation — e.g.\, good< /span> or great in (2).
 
(1) This pizza is decent/acceptable/ok.  Mild assessment
< span style="font-family: Arial\,sans-serif\;">(2) This pizza is good/great.  Strong assessment
 
Beyond this intuitive difference\, mild adjectives f eature a cluster of grammatical properties that set them apart from their s tronger counterparts. Among others: (i) they resist embedding in degree constructions (?more decent\; ??okayest vs. ✓ better\, gre atest)\; < span style="font-family: Arial\,sans-serif\;">(ii) they have contradictory antonyms (#neither acceptable no r unacceptable vs . ✓neither good nor bad)\; (iii) they can modified by barely (✓barely ok/acceptable vs. #barely good/great)\; (iv) and they can be used to express modal\, non-evaluative across different types of modality (an acceptable form of ID\; a decent person). 
 
Take n together\, these patterns indicate that the meaning of mild adjectives mu st be encoded in a fundamentally different way from that of their stronger counterparts — and therefore that there is more to the distinction between these two types of predicates than their intuitive difference in intensity. Accordingly\, I suggest that mild adjectives can be thought of as encoding a modal component. Specifically\, they require that an object’s value exce eds a necessity st andard – the mini mum value that makes it possible for an object to fulfill its purpose. This analysis highlights mild adjectives as a domain of predication in which mo dal quantification\, gradability and scalar reasoning closely interact\, op ening up a novel perspective on how different semantic components work toge ther to allow speakers to express qualitative judgments. 

 

Zoom information:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/65351511002?pw d=YjY1aHI0OWdaMnZuczdTNDRDVzAvQT09 
Meeting ID: 653 5151 1002< span style="font-size: small\;">
Passcode: 977676

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