Measurement across Domains: A Unified Account of the Adjectival and the Verbal Attenuative po

Abstract

In the recent literature on gradable predicates, it has been argued that the notion of a differential degree (one that measures the distance between two values on a scale) plays a role in the semantics of both adjectival and verbal predicates. This paper provides further evidence in favor of this claim by putting forward a unified account of the prefix po- that attaches to Russian comparative adjectives/adverbs and the attenuative po- that combines with verbs. Building on Filip’s (2000) and Součková’s (2004a, b) analysis of the verbal po-, it is argued that po- is a single prefix whose function is to restrict the differential degree and which applies within the verbal, adjectival, and adverbial domains. In addition, this paper investigates the interaction of this prefix with verbs lexicalizing scales of different dimensions.