scalar expressions

In SEMANTICS and PRAGMATICS, expressions which involve scales in their interpretation. They include logical QUANTIFIERS (e.g. all, some), quantifying DETERMINERS (e.g. few, half), quantifying time expressions (e.g. always, often), scalar ADVERBS (almost, only, more than), and scalar PREDICATES (e.g. love, like; must, shall). The nature of such scales is controversial, being conceived both in terms of strength (e.g. ‘all is stronger than some’) and of direction (almost and more activate a scale which is in a positive direction, by contrast with the negative direction of only and less than).