Linguistics doctoral student Starr Sandoval will give a Linguistics Outside the Classroom colloquium.
On responsible drivers and good passengers: the influence of quality modifiers on nouns
A noun modified by a subsective adjective is standardly said to denote a subset of the unmodified noun’s extension; skillful surgeon is a subset of surgeon (Siegel 1976, Kamp & Partee 1995). I argue that many subsective adjective-noun combinations actually denote a subset of the modifier’s extension (e.g. skillful surgeon is a subset of skillful). I define quality adjectives as a subclass of subsective modifiers and provide data to suggest these modifiers are the main predicates while the nouns they modify restrict their context. I introduce three novel generalizations regarding how quality modifiers influence nouns: quality modifiers alter the temporal properties of nouns, facilitate a sortal interpretation of relational nouns, and are not ambiguous when modifying nouns that reference biological classes. I ultimately argue these adjective noun combinations are linked with a covert as phrase, and subsequently discuss the distribution of of as phrases and how some interpretations relate to state kinds.
