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dc.contributor.authorAlstott, Johanna
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-27T14:57:34Z
dc.date.available2025-02-27T14:57:34Z
dc.date.issued2025-01-31
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/158273
dc.description.abstractFirst and last have been variously described as ordinals, superlatives, or both. These descriptions are generally not accompanied by extensive argumentation, and those who label first and last as superlatives do not present and argue for a particular decomposition. Thus, first and last’s status as ordinals vs. superlatives and their internal composition remain open issues. In this paper, I argue that first and last are superlatives, in particular the superlative forms of before and after. To argue that first and last are superlatives, I show that they pattern like superlatives and unlike ordinals (second, third, etc.) with respect to plurality, modifier choice, “modal superlatives” with possible, and the ordinal superlative construction. I next argue that the relations between before and first and between after and last show themselves overtly in many languages and in English paraphrases; furthermore, first and last semantically differ in ways that before and after have also been noted to differ. While I acknowledge one observation that prima facie counterexemplifies these claims, I argue that it constitutes a genuine counterexample only if one formalizes my decomposition of first/last using a standard Heimian (Heim in Notes on superlatives. Manuscript, MIT (1999)) entry for -est. The counterexample, which concerns the “upstairs de dicto” reading of superlatives, ceases to be an issue if one treats before and after as simplex and formalizes my decomposition using a Containment Hypothesis-inspired semantics (Bobaljik in Universals in comparative morphology: Suppletion, superlatives, and the structure of words, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2012) for -est.en_US
dc.publisherSpringer Netherlandsen_US
dc.relation.isversionofhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-024-09228-1en_US
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attributionen_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_US
dc.sourceSpringer Netherlandsen_US
dc.titleFirst and last as superlatives of before and afteren_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.citationAlstott, J. First and last as superlatives of before and after. Nat Lang Semantics 33, 83–120 (2025).en_US
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophyen_US
dc.relation.journalNatural Language Semanticsen_US
dc.identifier.mitlicensePUBLISHER_CC
dc.eprint.versionFinal published versionen_US
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticleen_US
eprint.statushttp://purl.org/eprint/status/PeerRevieweden_US
dc.date.updated2025-02-13T10:16:36Z
dc.language.rfc3066en
dc.rights.holderThe Author(s)
dspace.embargo.termsN
dspace.date.submission2025-02-13T10:16:36Z
mit.licensePUBLISHER_CC
mit.metadata.statusAuthority Work and Publication Information Neededen_US


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