This volume is the first to focus specifically on experimental studies of the semantics of
gradability scale structure and vagueness. It presents support for and challenges to current
formal analyses of these phenomena in view of experimentally collected data highlighting the
ways semantic and pragmatic theory can benefit from experimental methodologies. The papers in
the volume contribute to an explicit and detailed account of the use representation and
online processing of gradable and vague expressions using various kinds of controlled speaker
judgment tasks eye tracking and ERP. The aim is to strengthen the foundations of experimental
semantics and promote interaction between linguists psycholinguists psychologists and
philosophers who are interested in the semantics of natural language. Using data representing
different languages and a variety of nominal and adjectival constructions including degree
modification and comparatives the contributions address scale-based classifications of
gradable predicates such as the absolute vs. relative distinction the nature of the standards
for applicability of gradable expressions and the ways in which standards are determined the
nature of dimensions and multidimensionality in the meaning of scalar expressions and the role
of embodiment subjectivity and sociolinguistic considerations in the use and understanding of
gradable expressions.
