Séminaire de Recherche en Linguistique

My first point will be to argue that worlds represent an exception to an otherwise apparently robust pattern, namely, to the generalization that all semantic domains contain pluralities. More specifically, conditionals and constructions involving neg-raising predicates have been discussed in the literature as candidates for configurations that might involve world-pluralities, as they exhibit two traits also connected with definite plurals: homogeneity and non-maximality. However, I show that they lack core traits of pluralities witnessed for all other domains, namely, cumulativity and the ability to be targeted by a certain class of quantifiers. In the second part of the talk, I probe an explanation for this gap – partially building on previous claims in the literature, I try to link the use of worlds in these constructions to the use of degrees in constructions with gradable predicates that relate to non additive scales.