William C. Thomas

William C. Thomas

he/him

Linguist

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A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there, there is an XML version available for digesting as well.

Pages

Posts

Future Blog Post

less than 1 minute read

Published: .

This post will show up by default. To disable scheduling of future posts, edit config.yml and set future: false.

Blog Post number 4

less than 1 minute read

Published: .

This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.

Blog Post number 3

less than 1 minute read

Published: .

This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.

Blog Post number 2

less than 1 minute read

Published: .

This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.

Blog Post number 1

less than 1 minute read

Published: .

This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.

portfolio

publications

The interaction of just with modified scalar predicates

Published in Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 2020.

An analysis just in combination with equative and comparative constructions.

Recommended citation: Thomas, William C. and Ashwini Deo. 2020. The interaction of just with modified scalar predicates. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 24(2), 354–372.
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Social inferences from the use of just as an exclusive particle

Published in Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, 2021.

An experiment about how people are judged for using just in a workplace setting.

Recommended citation: Thomas, William C. 2021. Social inferences from the use of just as an exclusive particle. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 6, 746–760.
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Toward a unified semantics for English either

Published in Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT), 2022.

An analysis of the additive and disjunctive uses of either in Inquisitive Semantics.

Recommended citation: Thomas, William C. 2021. Toward a unified semantics for English either. Proceedings of SALT 31, 446–465.
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English does too have a [REVERSE,+] polarity particle!

Published in Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 2023.

An analysis of the refutational use of English too according to which it is a polarity particle with a special sensitivity to discourse commitments.

Recommended citation: Thomas, William C. 2023. English does too have a [REVERSE,+] polarity particle! Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 27, 641–654.
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‘Just’ as a scale widener with maximum-standard adjectives: emphatic/precisifying effects

(With Ashwini Deo.) Published in Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 2024.

An analysis of emphatic and precisifying uses of just that reveals some previously unobserved heterogeneity within the class of Maximum Standard Adjectives.

Recommended citation: Thomas, William C. and Ashwini Deo. 2024. 'Just' as a scale widener with maximum-standard adjectives: emphatic/precisifying effects. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 28, 895–911.
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A probabilistic, question-based approach to additivity

Published (early access) in Semantics and Pragmatics, 2026.

A treatment of additivity that uses Inquisitive Semantics and Bayesian pragmatics to account for a previously undocumented use of English too that I call the ‘argument-building’ use.

Recommended citation: Thomas, William C. 2026. A probabilistic, question-based approach to additivity. Semantics and Pragmatics 19(1). https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.19.1.
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talks

teaching