Varieties of intensification
This paper is a commentary on Beltrama and Bochnak (2015), who propose a uniform semantics for different uses of cross-categorial intensifiers -issimo in Italian and mu in Washo as universal quantifiers over contexts. Two concerns of their uniform semantics are raised, (i)unexpected restrictions on intensification, and (ii)non-truth-conditional intensification. It is argued that a uniform semantics like Beltrama and Bochnaks is unachievable, and suggested that the multitude of uses commonly observed with intensifiers should be captured in terms of semantic similarity, rather than semantic identity.
intensification modification granularity