Confidence reports

Abstract

We develop a states-based semantics for nominal and adjectival confidence reports like Ann is confident/has confidence that it’s raining, and their comparative forms. Our account leverages a Neodavidsonian analysis of adjectival comparatives in which adjectives denote properties of states and measure functions are introduced compositionally. We hereby provide the first systematic semantics for confidence reports, in addition to providing a needed modal extension to the states-based semantics of comparatives. As we show, the flexibility accorded by the Neodavidsonian implementation supports analysis of grammatical constructions with confident/confidence that might otherwise be puzzling, and it lends itself to certain natural ideas about the semantics of cross-categorial probabilistic language using, e.g., likely and probability. In the end, we sketch some immediate connections between confidence-reporting discourse (e.g., I am confident that…) and belief reports about probabilistic discourse (e.g., I think it’s likely that…).

EARLY ACCESS