Decomposing Modal Superlatives

1. Introduction Gradable adjectives are usually assumed to denote relations between individuals and degrees, as (1) illustrates. They are treated as downward monotonic: e.g., if Maribel's exact height is 156cm, Maribel counts as 156cm tall, as 155cm tall, as 154cm tall, etc. (1) Maribel is 156 centimeters tall. IP tall(m,156cm) NP VP λx e .tall(x,156cm) m Maribel V AdjP λx e .tall(x,156cm) is DegP Adj 156 centimeters tall 156cm λd d .λx e .tall(x,d) The comparative morpheme-er and the superlative morpheme-est operate on this degree argument. Intuitively, the comparative sentence in (2) is true iff John is tall to a degree to which Bill is not (Seuren 1973). The superlative sentence in (3) is true iff John is tall to a degree to which nobody else in the comparison class C is tall (Heim 1999). (2) John is taller than Bill ⇔ ∃d [tall(j,d) ∧¬tall(b,d)] (Seuren 1973) (3) John is the tallest (in the comparison class C) (Heim 1999) * I would like to thank Irene Heim and Lisa Bylinina for their fruitful comments. Many thanks to