Proportions vs. cardinalities: Comparative ambiguities and the COVID pandemic

This paper reports two psycholinguistic experiments on quantity comparatives and superlatives that are potentially ambiguous between cardinal and proportional readings. By using statements about COVID cases and vaccination numbers as a naturalistic context with real-world relevance, this work furthers our understanding of what happens in linguistic environments where multiple measure functions are available – what modulates the choice between them? The results provide new evidence that comparatives and superlatives can refer to scales ranging over degrees of proportion, in addition to degrees of cardinality. Furthermore, this experimental evidence points to a preference for cardinal interpretations, but also show that this is not rigid and can be weakened in favor of proportional readings by semantic factors – including considerations potentially related to stage- vs. individual-level differences – and by certain linguistic forms.