THE MEANING OF APPROXIMATIVE ADVERBS

395 Pages·2007·1.53 MB·English

THE MEANING OF APPROXIMATIVE ADVERBS:
EVIDENCE FROM EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University

By

Patrícia Matos Amaral, Master’s Degree in Linguistics
*****

The Ohio State University
2007

Dissertation Committee: Approved by
Professor Scott Schwenter, Adviser
Professor Craige Roberts ____________________________
Professor John Grinstead Adviser
Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Program

ABSTRACT

This dissertation presents an analysis of the semantic-pragmatic properties of adverbs
like English almost and barely (“approximative adverbs”), both in a descriptive and in a
theoretical perspective. In particular, I investigate to what extent the meaning distinctions
encoded by the system of approximative adverbs in European Portuguese (EP) shed light on
the characterization of these adverbs as a class and on the challenges raised by their
semantic-pragmatic properties. I focus on the intuitive notion of closeness associated with the
meaning of these adverbs and the related question of the asymmetry of their meaning
components.
The main claim of this work is that the meaning of approximative adverbs involves a
comparison between properties along a scalar dimension, and makes reference to a lexically
provided or contextually assumed standard value of comparison.
In chapter 2, I present some of the properties displayed by approximative adverbs
cross-linguistically and more specifically in European Portuguese. This chapter discusses the
difficulties raised by their classification within the major classes assumed in taxonomies of
adverbs. In chapter 3, I report two experiments that were conducted to test the asymmetric
behavior of the meaning components of approximative adverbs and the role that they play in
interpretation.
In chapter 4, I describe the range of interpretations contributed by approximative
adverbs by analyzing the meaning of EP quase ‘almost’. I show that the possible

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interpretations described correlate with the scope of the adverb; when the adverb has
sentential scope, it receives a modal interpretation, whereas in its use as a focus adverb, it
evaluates the applicability of the modified predicate. In chapter 5, I build on this approach to
flesh out the comparison introduced by quase and how it underlies the asymmetry of its
meaning components, and I compare the interpretation of quase with the interpretation of the
more restricted adverbial por pouco ‘almost, lit. by little’. In chapter 6, I exemplify the cross-
linguistically attested relation between approximative adverbs and negation by analyzing the
meaning of mal ‘barely’. In particular, I describe the comparison introduced by this adverb
and its scalar properties. In chapter 7, I show that the co-occurrence restrictions of mal can be
accounted for on the basis of the scalar analysis proposed in chapter 6. I describe both the co-
occurrence restrictions of the adverb with respect to the aspectual class of the predicate and
the co-occurrence restrictions that pertain to polarity. Finally, I compare the meaning of mal
with the meaning of por pouco in post-verbal position. Chapter 8 provides concluding
remarks and suggestions for further research.

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to my parents
to Lino

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Doing a PhD in the US involves many changes, both academic and personal. It’s been
a long way. Many people contributed to this project, and helped me in a variety of manners.
I was very lucky to be part of the vibrant and excellent community of linguists at
OSU, and to work closer with some of them as members of my committee. I would like to
thank John Grinstead, for his enthusiastic support of my experiment, and Craige Roberts, for
believing in my capacities for the hard work in semantics and pragmatics since the first class
I took with her. I owe to her many passionate and stimulating discussions that broadened and
challenged my view of the field, and encouraged me to establish connections between formal
and functional approaches to meaning. I would particularly like to thank Scott Schwenter, my
adviser since my first day at OSU, for expanding and sharpening my interests in pragmatics,
and for suggesting the topic of this dissertation to me. During the five years of my PhD, Scott
showed me the importance of keeping in mind “the big picture”, and always fostered my
academic growth as a linguist. Thank you, Scott, for asking the hard questions.
I also want to thank my fellow graduate students in Hispanic Linguistics at OSU:
David Alexander, Luiz Alexandre Amaral, Amanda Boomershine, Manuel Delicado-Cantero,
Steve Fondow, Chad Howe, Assela Reig, and Iker Zulaica-Hernández. I learned a great deal
studying with them. Thanks to Assela for helping me with the dissertation submission while I
was at Stanford. I am also indebted to my fellow students in Linguistics, in particular Sharon

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Ross and Elizabeth Smith, with whom I very much enjoyed discussing topics in semantics
and pragmatics. I miss talking with Elizabeth about scales and comparatives at our window
table in the Main Library.
The experiments reported in chapter 3 took an enormous amount of time and work
that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of many people. Many thanks to Kathleen
C. Hall, Dongmei Li (Statistics Department), Gilberto Loureiro, Janina Radó, Shari Speer,
Shravan Vasishth, and particularly to Allison Blodgett, for her patience and knowledgeable
advice. Without her help I simply wouldn’t have done it.
During my stay at Stanford, I had the priviledge to discuss parts of my dissertation
with several people, which led to many improvements: Cleo Condoravdi, Hana Filip,
Vivienne Fong, Graham Katz, Beth Levin, and Peter Sells. I would like to thank Peter Sells
for accepting to be my sponsor and for taking precious time from his over-busy schedule as
director of the Linguistic Institute to talk about my dissertation. I would particularly like to
thank Elizabeth Traugott for her sharp and challenging questions, and for helping me identify
the contribution I was trying to make. I would also like to thank my office mates, Jeeyoung
Peck and Eystein Dahl, for their patience and interest in my work, and for many helpful dry-
runs and discussions.
Attending OSU and Stanford University involved a big amount of funding, made
possible by the Fulbright Commission, Fundação Calouste Gulbekian, Fundação Luso-
Americana para o Desenvolvimento (FLAD) and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
(FCT), whose support I thankfully acknowledge.
Several people contributed to improve this dissertation, by commenting on parts of it
at crucial moments: Donna Byron, Louise McNally, and Judith Tonhauser.

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At a more personal level, this long way led to many encounters and priceless friends.
I can only mention a few. Many thanks to Steve and Meghan, for introducing me to some
important aspects of the American culture, from K9 units to the dairy marvels of Wisconsin,
and also to Maya and Fred Schultze, for their loving company, countless treats, and Summer
conversations in the screened porch watching lightning-bugs. Three Portuguese friends, one
in OSU and two in Lisbon, helped me more than they will know: Gilberto Loureiro, Ângela
Barreto Xavier, and Anabela Fernandes. Many thanks to my friend Henrique Miranda, for
keeping me well fed, mentally sane, and happy during my stay at Stanford, and to Araceli
Schwenter, for many warm Thanksgivings, lodging in Stanford, and mice catching.
Finally, I want to thank my parents for their love and constant support, and above all
Lino, for enduring the long separations and for always being there for me.

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VITA

April 16, 1975 Born – Guarda, Portugal
1996 B.A. in Classics and Portuguese
University of Coimbra, Portugal
1999 Master’s Degree in Linguistics
University of Coimbra, Portugal

PUBLICATIONS

Amaral, Patrícia Matos. 2006. The polysemy of mal in European Portuguese: A diachronic
analysis. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 7:1, 1–37.
Amaral, Patrícia Matos and Scott A. Schwenter. 2005. Contrast and the (non-) occurrence of
subject pronouns. Selected Proceedings of the 7th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium,
ed. David Eddington, 116-127. Sommerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Amaral, Patrícia Matos. 2004. Inferrables with Pronominal Subjects in European Portuguese:
Implications for Theories of Discourse Anaphora. Proceedings of the DAARC 2004,
eds. António Branco, Tony McEnery and Ruslan Mitkov, 1-7. Lisboa: Colibri.

FIELD OF STUDY

Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese
Studies in:
Pragmatics
Semantics
Psycholinguistics

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Abstract ii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgments v
Vita viii
List of Tables xii
List of Figures xiii
Conventions xiv

Chapter
1. Introduction 1
1.1 The semantics/pragmatics distinction 5
1.2 The Conjunctive Analysis 8
1.2.1 The asymmetric status of the meaning components 15
1.2.2 The Polar Component 19
1.2.2.1 The inverted readings of approximative adverbs 25
1.2.3 The Proximal Component 29
1.2.3.1 The intensional approach 29
1.2.3.2 The scalar approach 36
1.3 Shortcomings of the Conjunctive Analysis: evidence from European
Portuguese 43
1.4 Desiderata for an analysis of the meaning of approximative adverbs 51
1.5 Outline of the dissertation 55

2. The need for a cross–classification of approximative adverbs 57
2.1 Properties of approximative adverbs in a cross–linguistic perspective 57
2.2 Situating approximatives in the taxonomy of adverbs 63
2.3 An alternative approach to “closeness” 75
2.4 Overview of the analysis 79
2.4.1 The polar component 88
2.4.2 The proximal component 90
2.5 Conclusions 91

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