Comparative constructions may look simple, but they form one of the richest areas of compositional semantics. Even basic sentences such as (1) raise several nontrivial questions: what kind of meaning should we assign to adjectives like tall in order to make comparison possible? How are the meaning of -er and the than-clause composed? And what kind of structure, overt or covert, is present inside than-clauses?

(1) Ann is taller than Beth.

This course provides a general introduction to the semantics of these constructions, as well as to some of the key puzzles they raise. One such puzzle concerns the interpretation of logical operators inside than-clauses: surprisingly, (2) can be interpreted as (3), even though and and or are not generally interchangeable.

(2) Ann is taller than Beth or Cleo.

(3) Ann is taller than Beth and Cleo.

The course assumes a basic background in formal semantics, especially familiarity with the interpretation of movement chains. Some data involving modal operators may be discussed, but no detailed prior knowledge of intensional semantics will be presupposed.

Level: intermediate