On Intensifiers and Categorial Shift: The Case of Temperature Terms in Italian

Abstract

In this squib, we consider the issue of categorization applied to temperature terms, specifically targeting the use of nominal elements as intensifiers in a series of morphosyntactic contexts in Italian. We show that a set of (light) nouns can be used as evaluative classifiers, and that – at the same time – they can trigger a nominal value for the (adjectival) items they modify. We demonstrate that we have two options to operate a quantification over a predicative adjectival root: degree modification via quantification/gradation or intensification via evaluative “light nouns” or adjectival items providing a category (individuating) shift. We provide a model based on the theoretical insights of Savoia et al. (2017) for the lexical items introduced in the discussion.