Incommensurability

Abstract

This paper discusses subcomparatives with ‘incommensurable’ adjectives (e.g. beautiful and intelligent), which have received little attention in the literature so far. This is surprising, as the topic is of great importance for the current discussion with respect to the choice between a vague predicate analysis and degree-based approaches to gradability. This paper studies the properties of comparisons involving ‘incommensurable’ adjectives on the basis of a new collection of (mostly attested) data. A confrontation of the data with both degree-based and nondegree-based theories offers evidence for the latter, and more in particular for a more constrained version of Klein’s analysis ([11], [12]) as presented in Doetjes, Constantinescu & Součková [6].