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Degree and its many forms : definition(s), parameters, and a few questions.

Degree and its many forms : definition(s), parameters, and a few questions. Catherine CHAUVIN (U. de Lorraine, Nancy) Journées d ’agrégation sur « L’expression du degré », programme 2014 Université de Bordeaux 3, 24/01/14. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14.

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Degree and its many forms : definition(s), parameters, and a few questions.

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  1. Degree and its many forms : definition(s), parameters, and a few questions. Catherine CHAUVIN (U. de Lorraine, Nancy) Journées d ’agrégation sur « L’expression du degré », programme 2014 Université de Bordeaux 3, 24/01/14

  2. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 I. WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?

  3. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Degree => manyforms • Many aspects/ ‘chapters’ of language: quantification, exclamation, modality, comparison/ superlatives, aspect, adverbs, adjectives… • + variousforms, adjectives, adverbs, but also e.g., certain idioms: (as) fit as a fiddle… • More or lesslexicalized/ grammaticalized (e.g. very vs manyother « intensive » adverbs); « no » (open) mark (?) (It’sexpensive, e.g. Kennedy 2006) • Semantic(s) andpragmatic(s) (?)

  4. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • + Links and opposition with other notions (sub-classes? Qualitatively different? (all/ partly) Just different labels?) • Degree • Scale/ scalar/ scalarity • Intensity/ [intensification] • Gradation/ grading (Sapir)/ gradabilility/ grading/ graded/ gradience (Aarts)…

  5. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Definition • -> all that is not binary…? • -> A ‘positive’ definition of degree?

  6. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 + The expression of degree (« L’expression du degré ») • => does this include/ exclude something? • What does one mean by ‘expression’? (not. semantics/ pragmatics)

  7. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • + It can/ may open other types of questions: -> Discourse analysis

  8. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • -> + Sociolinguistics?

  9. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • A. Stephen Fry in Stephen Fry in America: ‘That’srathersplendid’ -> Use of quite in the UK/ US (« understatement »…) • B. Number of emphasis markers in teenage talk, and constant evolution of this (French: top, trop; English:) e.g. It soundstop banana! (D. Williams, Mr Stinkp. 115) Chloegrinned. That wassuperbrilliantamazing! (p. 329) Completedness/ ‘telicity’/ ‘full; as much as itcanbe’: The bus waschock-a-blockwith people. (226) • [+ ‘Lipgloss?’ ‘A smidge’ (181)]

  10. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • C. (i.e., also) Language change? -> « erosion » of emphasis markers and re-invention (‘expressiveness’/ expressivity) • D. Role of genres, registers, once again here Some of today’s examples are taken from children’s books written by comedian D. Walliams, which shows quite a lot of invention for degree markers and scales

  11. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • [NB. Degree might also be used in a meta-/ theoretical way (e.g. how clear-cut linguistic categories are, vs fuzziness, for instance, cf. Aarts: 2007’s syntactic gradience; not dealt with directly here]

  12. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Still, important/ interesting => presence, many markers + links between them: Natural languages reflect this fact: all languages have syntactic categories that express gradable concepts, and all languages have designated comparative constructions, which are used to express orderings between two objects with respect to the degree or amount to which they possess some property (Sapir 1944). (Kennedy 2006) Very important role of scalar structures in language (Kennedy et al.) => Different aspects to beexplored/ (made more precise (?))

  13. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 II. DEFINING ‘DEGREE’

  14. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 2.1. Definingit ‘per se’?

  15. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Not always explicitly defined (used vs defined)

  16. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Certain/ specific aspects may be openly defined -> vs « degree » as such? • Scale vs degree (Kennedy 2006); see below

  17. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Everything that is not binary => too large (what isn’t degree?) + not very precise… • (+ difficulties to oppose complementary vs gradable in a strict way (true, false; male, female…; [partially?] contextual dependence)

  18. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Sapir 1944 ‘link’ withcomparison / comparisonbeing the most basic operation of all (=> comparison as such, but alsolarger) • Taken up by Kennedy (on comparatives): ‘The ability to establish orderings among objects and make comparisons between them according to the amount or degree to which they possess some property is a basic component of human cognition.’ • => + more precise (series of) definitions

  19. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • + many ways of expressing degree/ semantic differences

  20. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 2.2. Definingit in relation to other notions

  21. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Could be a question of theoretical choice, or just preferences (no obvious reason but a preferred choice of words)?

  22. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Degree vs grade (and derived forms) • Degree -> perhaps more traditional (although common) More general as well • Grading -> also Aarts 2007; but « gradience »

  23. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Bierwisch, M. (1989). The Semantics of gradation. In M. Bierwisch, & E. Lang (Eds.), Dimensional adjectives. (pp. 71–261). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. • Cresswell, M. J. (1977). The semantics of degree. In B. Partee (Ed.), Montague grammar (pp. 261–292). New York: Academic Press.

  24. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • => graded based on one type of property/ syntactic behaviour (gradability), but which in itself needs further defining? (See part 3)

  25. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Degree and scalarity Scale A ‘historical’ difference => more ‘recent’ studies

  26. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • + main differencecouldbethattheyinclude a lot of work on time/ tense, and in particular, aspect • => includesverb and eventsemantics in the study of grading • -> telicity (and discussion) • -> incrementalthemes (e.g. He ate an apple) • Link between time and degree -> the passing of time isgradual, per se; • + mayinclude a gradualevolution of someelementthatisassociated to the event as time passes (cf. incrementalthemes)

  27. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Allows for an integrated study of time and degree

  28. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • In Kennedy (2006), degree vs scale: • a. Gradable adjectives map their arguments onto abstract representations of measurement, or DEGREES • b. A set of degrees totally ordered with respect to some DIMENSION (height, cost, etc.) constitutes a SCALE.

  29. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Degree and intensity • Who uses the term « intensity »? • Can bevery large term: Romero (2007)/ (2005) -> rhetorical, phonetics, … • Problem of somethingthatcouldbetooencompassing? (cf. « expressiveness ») • Shoulditbe made more precise? How? • Is thatjust a possible effect of degree-marking (« effet de sens ») or on the contrary, isthatmuch vaguer thandegree? • [Link withmodality]

  30. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Complicated terminology -> history of the field, frameworks… • + question of whether all these facts can or cannot be subsumed under a same notion • Try and define what is studied as clearly as possible…

  31. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 (On a tentative basis…) • Grading => syntacticproperty • Degree => value on a scale • Scale => ordered set of points with values attached to them (+ types of scale) • Scalarity => possible linkwith a scale • Gradability => possible use of gradingterms • Intensity => larger, includessaliency, expressiveness…

  32. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 III. TYPES OF DEGREE/ WAYS OF EXPRESSING DEGREE

  33. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 [Quantity vs Qualityopposition • + ? (NB. not all on samelevel)

  34. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 -> modes of expression of degree: direct/ indirect -> degree/ degree + somethingelse -> degree in quality/ quantity; degree in quantification+qualification vs/ and space?/ time (links, differences) -> [comparison/ superlatives and theirforms/ uses] -> there are scales… and scales? Scale types and « gradation » in the organization of the lexicon/ in grammar -> there’s ‘degree of degree’ (soverynice; farmore impressive, etc.)

  35. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Direct/ indirect expression of degree

  36. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Directness/ indirectness in the expression of degree Lexicalizedelements: verynice Lesslexicalizedelements: ruddyhilarious (222)/ deadfamous (?) +/- collocation? Novel uses (?): bum-numbinglyboring (119) Direct: verynice Indirect: i.e. pragmatic or discursive Bum-numbinglyboring -> degree by implicature?

  37. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Pragmatics and semantics NB. Scales and implicatures (Q-implicatures) ‘Is(n’t) she great?’ ‘She’s nice.’

  38. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Discursive … and mixed devices (comparison, +…) Chloewasa hundred times moreexcitedthanshehadever been in her life. (240) (direct comparison) But Chloewould have watched a hundred of them if theymeant not having to spend the daycampaigningwithMother. That was howboringitwasgoing to be. (120) (still direct comparison but lessdirectlyconstructed; constructedlinkbetweentwoindependentlycreated situations; two ‘mental spaces’ ‘broughttogether’ vs ‘blended’ (?)) [finally not used: ?]

  39. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 High degree/ center -> ways of constructingitindirectly/ throughdiscourse This wasevident. Sapphirehadfake tan smeared all over everyinch of her skin. Shewasnow orange. As orange as an orange, if not orangier. Think of the orangiestpersonyou’veever met, then times [sic] theirorangeness by ten. And if shedidn’t look frightfulenoughalready, shewaswearing a lime green mini-dress and clutching a shocking pinkhandbag. (Billionaire Boy, p. 146)

  40. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • -> play on notion (‘orangeness’, ‘orangier’) and degrees of belonging to it • -> use of an elementthatcould ‘embody’ central characteristics (orange, fruit: as orange as an orange) + discursive use of reinforcement (« if not orangier ») • -> comparisonwith an independentlyconstructedscene: think of… (another situation, thenmake the link). • -> modified cliché: « Think of… then double/ triple it », augmentedquantity: ‘X ten’ • -> Finally ‘mental’ image isreinforced by prompting the reader to picture orange + lime-green + shocking pinktogether (… device?) -> + ‘saliency’ • => (all together)

  41. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • Hierarchy of situations vs in lexical field… (pragmatic/ cultural) => expression of degree? D. Walliams, Gangsta Granny -> scale/ degree marked by types of situation (=> lexicalization?/ cultural dimension?)

  42. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 David Williams, Billionaire Boy (idem)

  43. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Ibidem, to reinforce the ‘purpleness’ of the boy’s ‘bum’ later on

  44. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 David Walliams, Mr Stink (idem)

  45. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Anotherexample (cf. slide 40) Mr Stinkstank. He alsostunk. And if itis correct English to sayhestinked, thenhestinked as well. He was the stinkieststinkystinkerwhoeverlived. A stinkis the worst type of smell. A stinkisworsethan a stench. And a stenchisworsethan a pong. And a pongisworsethan a whiff. And a whiffcanbeenough to makeyournosewrinkle. (DW, Mr Stink, p. 11)

  46. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 • -> use of word to emphasizedegree (cf. repetition + belonging to notionaldomain) + here, play on differentforms (all morphologicalformsiconically put together to add to the ideathat the smellisstrong) • 2ndparagraph: resort to lexical scale in lexical field of smell (partlyconstructeddiscursively) Stink < stench < pong < whiff (gradedquality -> badness of smell) • + whiffissupposed to be « enough.. » (comparison/ enough)-> so the restisgraduallyworse

  47. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Conclusions? -> can be indirect/ direct; constructed discursively -> not always explicitly formulated (cf. types of situations) + strong pragmatic/ cultural component -> can be a mixture of many devices at the same time/ together

  48. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Degree + somethingelse

  49. Degree and its many forms. C. CHAUVIN. Bordeaux 24/01/14 Adverbsmarking a high position on a scale Sheknewfullwellwhatitwaslike(16) Are just plain idle. (86) The smellwasespeciallybadtoday. (96-97) ? Lookedstifflyimmaculate(101) It wasthrillingly, terrifyingly real (143) You must have been deadfamous! (147-148) … whichChloethoughtprettyfitting(149) A trulyridiculousvoice(161) She’s an absolutelyfantastic girl (188)…

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