Multidimensional Adjectives

Bibliographic Data

ID21293337
AuthorsJustin D''Ambrosio (0000-0001-8020-2283, University of St Andrews), Brian Hedden (0000-0003-4463-9255, Australian National University)
Year2024
Volume102
Issue2
Pages253-277
Publication date2024-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralasian Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-8402 • E-ISSN: 1470-6828
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00048402.2023.2277923
OpenAlexW4389108746
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited52

Multidimensional adjectives are ubiquitous in natural language.An adjective F is multidimensional just in case whether F applies to an object or pair of objects depends on how those objects stand with respect to multiple underlying dimensions of F-ness.Developing a semantics for multidimensional adjectives requires us to address the problem of dimensional aggregation: how do the application conditions of an adjective F in its positive and comparative forms depend on its underlying dimensions?Here we develop a semantics for multidimensional adjectives that incorporates aggregation functions.We then explore an analogy between dimensional aggregation and preference aggregation, bringing results from social choice theory to bear on the number and kind of aggregation functions which are admissible in a context.These results suggest that, for any given adjective, there will often be multiple aggregation functions admissible, meaning that multidimensional comparatives are often vague

Adjective · Analogy · Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential) · Natural language processing · Noun · Object (grammar) · Preference · Semantics (computer science) · Statistics · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Game Theory and Voting Systems · Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge · Mathematics · Philosophy

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