Gradable abstract nouns and eventualities

Abstract

This paper proposes that gradable abstract nouns (GNs) such as beauty and bravery and related gradable adjectives (GAs) such as beautiful and brave have a shared semantic root, namely a measure function on states. However, GAs and GNs are lexicalized as being of a different semantic type. The proposal explains why GNs and GAs share properties such as gradability, but also why they differ. For instance, it account for why GNs do not imply positive readings above a certain contextual standard (Alex’s bravery was lacking). The paper additionally provides data supporting the view that GNs can be categorised as either dispositional or non-dispositional. Only dispositional GNs allow for unrestricted spatiotemporal location (Alex’s bravery/?beauty in the courthouse yesterday). This is analysed as a routinised coercion from states to acts that manifest those dispositional states.