Liao, Shen-yiMcNally, Louise, 1965-Meskin, Aaron2017-09-262017-09-262016Liao S, McNally L, Meskin A. Aesthetic adjectives lack uniform behavior. Inquiry. 2016; 59(6):618-31. DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2016.12089270020-174Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/32802The goal of this short paper is to show that esthetic adjectives—exemplified by “beautiful” and “elegant”—do not pattern stably on a range of linguistic diagnostics that have been used to taxonomize the gradability properties of adjectives. We argue that a plausible explanation for this puzzling data involves distinguishing two properties of gradable adjectives that have been frequently conflated: whether an adjective’s applicability is sensitive to a comparison class, and whether an adjective’s applicability is context-dependent.application/pdfeng© Taylor & Francis. This is an electronic version of an article published in Liao S, McNally L, Meskin A. Aesthetic adjectives lack uniform behavior. Inquiry. 2016; 59(6):618-31. DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2016.1208927. Inquiry is available online at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0020174X.2016.1208927info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2016.1208927Aesthetic adjectivesAesthetic conceptsGradable adjectivesPredicates of personal tasteExperimental semanticsExperimental philosophyExperimental philosophical aestheticsContextComparison classinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess