Monotonicity restored: more never means purer

Abstract

Bale and Barner (2009) suggested that comparatives with more plus mass noun, such as There is more gold in the ring than there is in the bracelet, can be interpreted as comparing degrees of purity of material. As Wellwood (2015) observes, this suggestion is incompatible with Schwarzschild’s (2006) Monotonicity Constraint which puts limits on the types of measure functions that can enter into the evaluation of such comparisons. Scrutinizing the truth conditions of a range of relevant cases, we resolve this tension by showing that comparisons of purity with more are only apparent, and that the correct analysis of such cases is one that respects the Monotonicity Constraint.