Relative stupidity and past tenses

Abstract

Apart from the fact that they can have individual-level or stage-level readings, evaluative predicates like stupid also alternate between what Barker (2002) calls an “absolute” and a “relative” reading. This paper addresses three questions raised by these predicates, and is mainly based on French data. Firstly, it is argued that the relative reading of stupid-predicates can be either stage-level or individual-level, depending on the tense chosen in the matrix clause. The second question concerns the semantic relation between the relative and the absolute reading. As often observed, the entailment seems blocked from Feynman was stupid to dance on the table (relative reading) towards Feynman was stupid (absolute reading). I argue that although arguably, the entailment is blocked under the most salient reading of each construction with an imperfect tense in the matrix clause, it goes sometimes through. The third question concerns the differences between the relative reading conveyed by the 'stupide-de-cxn' (Feynman était stupide de danser sur la table) and the relative reading expressed by the gerund (En dansant sur la table, Feynman était stupide).