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On The Comparative And Absolute Readings Of Superlatives

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Abstract

This paper deals with an ambiguity of superlative noun phrases first noticed in Szabolcsi (1986) and discussed in Heim (1985), but which has not been studied in the subsequent literature. After discussing in detail the special properties of the comparative reading, we develop a semantics for both readings and show how it accounts for these properties.

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Authors
  1. Donka F. Farkas
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  2. Katalin É. Kiss
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Farkas, D.F., Kiss, K.É. On The Comparative And Absolute Readings Of Superlatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 18, 417–455 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006431429816

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