Comparatives in Context. Vallée on Relative Gradable Adjectives

Abstract

In “Unarticulated Comparison Classes” 2018 [2009],Richard Vall ́ee adoptsJohn Perry’s (2012 [2001]) reflexive-referential theory of meaning and contentas well ashis concept of unarticulated constituents (Perry 1986) to deal with certain context-sensitiveelements of the truth-conditions of statements containing relative gradable predicates. I amsympathetic both with the general framework and with the assumption that unarticulatedconstituents are involved in the truth-conditions ofbare positivessuch as “Monica istall.” I do not share, however, Vall ́ee’s main conclusions on the examples he provides aspre-theoretical evidence. This leads me to disagree with some details of his proposal for thesemantics and pragmatics of relative gradable adjectives