@cite{sassoon-2013} #
Galit W. Sassoon (2013). A Typology of Multidimensional Adjectives. Journal of Semantics 30: 335–380.
Key Claims #
Multidimensional adjectives bind their dimensions via implicit quantifiers:
- healthy is conjunctive: healthy in ALL dimensions (blood pressure AND cholesterol AND lung function …)
- sick is disjunctive: sick in SOME dimension (blood pressure OR cholesterol …)
- intelligent is mixed: context determines ∀ vs ∃
Three hypothesis sets connect dimension binding to other properties:
- Typology (Hypothesis 1): adjectives classify as conjunctive, disjunctive, or mixed based on co-occurrence with exception phrases (except)
- Polarity (Hypothesis 2): positive antonyms are conjunctive, negative are disjunctive — follows from a negation theory of antonymy + De Morgan
- Standard type (Hypothesis 3): total (max standard) → conjunctive, partial (min standard) → disjunctive, relative → mixed
Formalization #
The dimension-binding operations and De Morgan theorems are in
Theories/Semantics/Lexical/Adjective/Theory.lean. This file contains:
- The 18-adjective sample with empirical classifications from (36a–c), p. 359–360
- Corpus data from Table 3 (conjunctivity/disjunctivity raw counts)
- The 3:1 ratio criterion (p. 358) for classifying adjectives
- Antonym pair structure with De Morgan consistency verification
- Verification theorems connecting polarity, standard type, and binding type
Scale type note #
Scale types here use @cite{kennedy-mcnally-2005} Boundedness values, which
match the Fragment lexicon. Sassoon's own modifier-distribution analysis
(Section 2.3, Table 4) reclassifies several adjectives: good and dissimilar
as total, bad and similar as partial. These reclassifications are noted in
comments but not encoded, since the correlational H3 test (r = 0.62, p < 0.013
for non-comparatives) is the paper's actual finding — per-adjective binary
predictions are our addition for verification purposes.
An adjective in Sassoon's 18-item sample, classified along three axes.
- form : String
- isPositive : Bool
Evaluative polarity: positive adjectives denote membership under a generalization across ALL dimensional properties; negative adjectives denote the existence of a counterexample to SOME dimensional standard. Distinct from scale-endpoint polarity (
AdjModifierEntry.isLowerEndpoint): empty is lower-endpoint but evaluatively positive. - scaleType : Core.Scale.Boundedness
Scale structure classification (@cite{kennedy-mcnally-2005}).
Observed default binding type from exception-phrase corpus data (36a–c).
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
- Phenomena.Gradability.Studies.Sassoon2013.instBEqMultidimAdj.beq x✝¹ x✝ = false
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Exception-phrase corpus data from Table 3. Each adjective has two counts:
conj: dimensional uses in positive contexts ("P except Dim")disj: dimensional uses in negative contexts ("not P except Dim")
The chi-square tests in the paper compare the [conj, disj] distribution between antonym pairs to test whether polarity predicts binding type.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Table 3 data. Values are raw counts of dimensional exception-phrase uses per adjective in positive vs. negative contexts.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
The 3:1 ratio criterion from p. 358: Sassoon classifies adjectives as conjunctive when the conj/disj ratio is "significantly larger," which she operationalizes as ≥ 3 times the other count.
Equations
Instances For
Equations
Instances For
Classification from 3:1 criterion: conjunctive, disjunctive, or mixed.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
All 18 adjectives: corpus classification matches assigned binding type.
Antonym pairs from the paper's sample. Each pair (positive, negative) should satisfy De Morgan consistency: if the positive is conjunctive, the negative should be disjunctive, and vice versa. Mixed adjectives are exempt (mixed.negate = mixed).
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
De Morgan consistency: the negative antonym's binding type matches
.negate of the positive antonym's binding, or one of them is mixed
(context-dependent, so not constrained by De Morgan).
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Under a negation theory of antonymy (@cite{heim-2006}, @cite{buering-2007}),
if a positive adjective P is conjunctive (∀Q∈DIM: Q(x)), then its
negative antonym ¬P is disjunctive (∃Q∈DIM: ¬Q(x)), by De Morgan's laws.
The proof is in Theory.lean as deMorgan_conjunctive_disjunctive.
Predicted binding type from evaluative polarity, assuming positive member of each antonym pair is conjunctive.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Hypothesis 2 is satisfied when the adjective is mixed (context-dependent) or when its binding matches the polarity prediction.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Predicted binding type from scale structure via Interpretive Economy. Max-endpoint standard → conjunctive, min-endpoint → disjunctive, contextual → mixed.
Equations
Instances For
H3 holds for 13 of 18 adjectives (72%) using K&M2005 scale types.
The full chain connecting Hypothesis 2 to the De Morgan theorems:
1. *healthy* is conjunctive: `conjunctiveBinding healthDims x`
2. Under negation theory of antonymy, *sick* ≈ ¬*healthy*
3. By `deMorgan_conjunctive_disjunctive`:
`!conjunctiveBinding healthDims x = disjunctiveBinding (neg healthDims) x`
4. Therefore *sick* is disjunctive: QED
We demonstrate this with a concrete 3-dimension health model.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Dan: high on 2 dimensions, fails lung.
Equations
Instances For
Sam: meets all 3 standards.
Equations
Instances For
End-to-end: "not healthy" and "sick" are equivalent under the negation theory of antonymy + De Morgan.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
All positive adjectives have mean > 4, all negative have mean < 4. Midpoint 4 cleanly separates the two groups.