Books

Adjectives and Adverbs: Syntax, Semantics and Discourse, 2008, Oxford University Press, Oxford. [Edited with Louise McNally]

Projecting the adjective: The syntax and semantics of gradability and comparison, 1999, Garland Press, New York. (This is the published version of my 1997 Ph.D. thesis; the original is available here.)

Papers

Semantic Adaptation in Gradable Adjective Interpretation. (With Ming Xiang and Alex Kramer). Ms., 8 June, 2020.

Zeroing in on Exclusively Exclusive Content. To appear in Aitha, Akshay, Kutay Serova and Madeline Snigaroff (eds.), Proceedings of CLS 59. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Familiarity Inferences, Subjective Attitudes and Counterstance Contingency: Toward a Pragmatic Theory of Subjective Meaning. (With Malte Willer). 2022. Linguistics and Philosophy 45:1395–1445.

Pragatic Reasoning and Semantic Convention: A Case Study on Gradable Adjectives. (With Ming Xiang, Weijie Xu and Timothy Leffel). 2022. Semantics and Pragmatics 15.

Assertion, Expression, Experience. (With Malte Willer). 2020. Inquiry.

Numerals denote degree quantifiers: Evidence from child language. (With Kristen Syrett). 2020. In Gotzner, N. and U. Sauerland (eds.), Measurement, Numerals and Scales: Essays in Honour of Stephanie Solt. Springer. (Preprint.)

The Sorites Paradox in Linguistics. Pre-publication version. To appear in Oms, Sergi and Elia Zardini (eds.), The Sorites Paradox. Cambridge University Press.

Kyle owns more suits than the one he's wearing. 2017. In LaCara, N., K. Moulton and A.M. Tessier (eds.), "A Schrift to Fest Kyle Johnson". Linguistics Open Access Publications 1.

Subjective attitudes and counterstance contingency. (With Malte Willer). 2016. Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 26.

Imprecision is pragmatic: Evidence from referential processing. (With Tim Leffel and Ming Xiang). 2016. Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 26.

Processing Gradable Adjectives in Context: A Visual World Study. (With Helena Aparicio and Ming Xiang). 2015. In D'Antonio, S., M. Moroney and C.R. Little (eds.) Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic theory 25. 413-432.

A "De-Fregean" Semantics (and Neo-Gricean Pragmatics) for Modified and Unmodified Numerals. 2015. Semantics and Pragmatics 8.10:1-44.

Predicates and Formulas: Evidence from Elllipsis. 2014. In Crnic, Luka and Uli Sauerland (eds.) The Art and Craft of Semantics: A Festschrift for Irene Heim, Volume 1. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.

No More Shall We Part: Quantifiers in English Comparatives. (With Peter Alrenga.) 2013. Natural Language Semantics.

Two Sources of Subjectivity: Qualitative Assessment and Dimensional Uncertainty. 2013. Inquiry 56.2-3:258-277.

A Scalar Semantics for Scalar Readings of Number Words. 2013. In Caponigro, I. and C. Cecchetto (eds.), From Grammar to Meaning: The Spontaneous Logicality of Language. Cambridge University Press.

Two Kinds of Subjectivity To appear in Huitnik, J. and C. Meier (eds), Subjective Meaning.

A New Standard of Comparison. 2012. (With Peter Alrenga and Jason Merchant.) Proceedings of WCCFL 30

Mandarin Transitive Comparatives and the Grammar of Measurement (with Thomas Grano). 2012. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 21:219-266

The Composition of Incremental Change. 2012. In Demonte, V. and L. McNally (eds), Telicity, Change, State: A Cross-categorical View of Event Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Adjectives. 2012. In Russell, G. and D. Graff Fara (eds.), Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Language. Routledge.

Ambiguity and Vagueness: An Overview. 2012. The Handbook of Semantics, edited by Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger and Paul Portner.

Extraction and Deletion in Palestinian Arabic Comparatives (with Yaron McNabb). 2011. In Broselow, Ellen & Hamid Ouali (eds.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXII-XXIII, Selected papers from the Annual Symposia on Arabic Linguistics. John Benjamins.

Vagueness and Comparison. 2011. In Vagueness and Language Use, edited by Paul Egre and Nathan Klinedinst. Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Language and Cognition. Palgrave MacMillan.

Meaning and Context in Children's Understanding of Gradable Adjectives (with Kristen Syrett and Jeffrey Lidz). 2010. Journal of Semantics 27.1:1-35.

Color, Context and Compositionality (with Louise McNally). 2010. Synthese 174.1:79-98.

On "average" (with Jason Stanley). 2009. Mind 118: 583-646.

What an Average Semantics Needs (with Jason Stanley). 2008. Proceedings of SALT 18.

Measure of Change: The Adjectival Core of Degree Achievements (with Beth Levin). 2008. In McNally, Louise and Chris Kennedy (eds.) Adjectives and Adverbs: Syntax, Semantics and Discourse, Oxford University Press.

Modes of Comparison. 2007. Proceedings of CLS 43, edited by Malcolm Elliott, James Kirby, Osamu Sawada, Eleni Staraki, and Suwon Yoon.

Vagueness and Grammar: The Semantics of Relative and Absolute Gradable Adjectives. 2007. Linguistics and Philosophy.

Northern Norwegian Degree Questions and the Syntax of Measurement (with Peter Svenonius). 2006. Phases of Interpretation, ed. by Mara Frascarelli.

The Syntax and Semantics of Multiple Degree Modification in English (with Louise McNally). Proceedings of the HPSG05 Conference.

Structural Economy in the Processing and Representation of Gapping Sentences (with Katy Carlson and Michael Walsh Dickey). Syntax 8.3.

Shifting Standards: Children's Understanding of Gradable Adjectives. (With Kristen Syrett, Evan Bradley and Jeff Lidz.) GALANA 2005.

Comparatives, Semantics of. Contribution to the Enclycopedia of Language and Linguistics, Second Edition, to be published by Elsevier.

Argument Contained Ellipsis Revisited. This is an April 2004 version of a different take on the data orginally discussed in Kennedy 1994.

Scale Structure and the Semantic Typology of Gradable Predicates (with Louise McNally). Language 81.2.

Ellipsis and Syntactic Representation. In Schwabe, K. and S. Winkler, (eds.), The Syntax-Semantics Interface: Interpreting (Omitted) Structure, John Benjamins, Amsterdam.

A (Covert) Long-Distance Anaphor in English (with Jeffrey Lidz). Proceedings of WCCFL 20.

Degree vs. Manner `well': A Case Study in Selective Binding (with Louise McNally). Paper presented at the Workshop on Generative Approaches to the Lexicon, Geneva, April 2001. This is a revised version of the paper in the Jorge Hankamer webfest.

The Case of the `Missing CP' and the Secret Case (with Jason Merchant), Jorge Hankamer Webfest, Dept. of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Well (with Louise McNally), Jorge Hankamer Webfest, Dept. of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Comparative Deletion and Optimality in Syntax. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 2002. 20.3:553-621.

Comparative (Sub)deletion and Ranked, Violable Constraints in Syntax. The Proceedings of NELS 30, GSLA Publications, Amherst.

Scalar Structure Underlies Telicity in Degree Acheivements (with Jennifer Hay and Beth Levin), In The Proceedings of SALT 9, CLC Publications, Ithaca.

From Event Structure to Scale Structure: Degree Modification in Deverbal Adjectives (with Louise McNally). In The Proceedings of SALT 9, CLC Publications, Ithaca.

Polar Opposition and the Ontology of `Degrees'. 2001. Linguistics and Philosophy 24:33-70.

Gradable Adjectives Denote Measure Functions, Not Partial Functions. 1999. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 29.1 (Spring 1999).

Deriving the Scalar Structure of Deverbal Gradable Adjectives (with Louise McNally), to appear in Catalan Working Papers in Linguistics.

Attributive comparative deletion. 2000. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18.1 (co-authored with Jason Merchant)

Local dependencies in comparative deletion, 1998, Proceedings of WCCFL 17.

On the quantificational force of the comparative clause, 1997, in Austin, Jennifer and Aaron Lawson (eds.), Proceedings of ESCOL 97. Cornell Linguistics Club publications.

On the monotonicity of polar adjectives. In Hoeksema, J., H. Rullmann, V. Sanchez-Valencia, and T. van der Wouden (eds.), Perspectives on Negation and Polarity.

Attributive comparatives and the syntax of ellipsis (with Jason Merchant), 1999, in Corbin, F., C. Dobrovie-Sorin, and J-M. Marandin (eds.), Proceedings of the Colloque de Syntaxe et Semantique de Paris 2. Paris: Peter Lang.

Antecedent contained deletion and the syntax of quantification. 1997. Linguistic Inquiry 28.4.

Verb phrase deletion and 'Nonparasitic' Gaps. 1997. Linguistic Inquiry 28.4.

Comparison and polar opposition, 1997, in Proceedings of SALT 7, CLC Publications, Ithaca.

Attributive comparatives and bound ellipsis (with Jason Merchant), 1997, Linguistics Research Center Report LRC-97-03, University of California, Santa Cruz.

An indexical account of `certain ambiguities', 1996, in Przezdziecki, M. and L. Whalen (eds.), Proceedings of ESCOL '95. Ithaca: Cornell Linguistics Club.

Comparatives, indices, scope, 1995, in Gabriele, L. and R. Westmoreland (eds.). Proceedings of FLSM VI. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club.

Argument contained ellipsis, 1994, Linguistics Research Center Report LRC-94-03. University of California, Santa Cruz.

Morphological alignment and head projection: Towards a nonderivational account of stress in Dakota, 1995, in Merchant, J., J. Padgett, and R. Walker (eds.) Phonology at Santa Cruz 3. Linguistics Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Degree Modification and the Scalar Structure of Gradable Adjectives (with Louise McNally), 1999, Workshop on the Description of Adjectives for NLP, TALN99, Cargese, Corsica.

Applications of term identification technology: Domain description and content characterisation (with Branimir Boguraev) Natural Language Engineering 5.1.

Dynamic visual metaphors for news story abstractions (with Rachel Bellamy and Branimir Boguraev), paper presented at HICSS-32, January 1999.

Dynamic presentation of phrasally-based document abstractions (with Branimir Boguraev and Rachel Bellamy), paper presented at HICSS-32, January 1999.

Dynamic presentation of document content for rapid on-line skimming (with Branimir Boguraev, Yin Yin Wong, Rachel Bellamy, Sascha Brawer, and Jason Swartz), 1997, paper presented at the AAAI Spring 1998 Symposium on Intelligent Text Summarization, Stanford University, 23-25 March, 1998.

Salience-based content characterisation of text documents (with Branimir Boguraev), to appear in Mani, I. and M. Maybury (eds.), Advances in Automatic Text Summarization, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Workshop on Intelligent Scalable Text Summarisation at ACL/EACL '97, Madrid, Spain.

Anaphora in a wider context: Tracking discourse referents (with Branimir Boguraev), 1996, in W. Wahlster (ed.), The Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, London.

Anaphora for everyone: Pronominal anaphora resolution without a parser (with Branimir Boguraev), 1996, in The Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Handouts

The Number of Meanings of English Number Words. University of Illinois, 16 September, 2010.

Where does subjectivity come from?. Subjective Meaning: Alternatives to Relativism, DGfS 2010, Berlin, 25 February, 2010.

Vagueness and Comparison. International Conference on Vagueness, Paris, 7 April, 2008.

Standards of Comparison. Colloque de Syntaxe et Semantique de Paris, 6 October, 2007.

Comparative and relative clauses compared. MIT Ling Lunch, 3 October, 2002.

In Search of Unpronounceable Structure, Workshop on Ellipsis in English and Japanese, Kyoto, Japan, December 2001.

Remnants and Recoverability, Workshop on Ellipsis in English and Japanese, Kyoto, Japan, December 2000.

Case and identity in comparative deletion (with Jason Merchant), Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, Ca., January 1999.

Comparison of deviation. Linguisitics Society of America annual meeting, Chicago, Il., 4 January, 1997.