Contrast instead of comparison: Evidence from West Tibetan differentiating property ascriptions

Non-equative comparisons are typically interpreted in terms of degree semantics. That is, the comparee is thought to have the same property as the standard, but to a different degree. In this paper I should like to introduce a different way of conceptualising differences, namely categorical contrasting, where one focuses more on the contrast than on the gradualness of the difference. Two items are described as being essentially different with respect to a certain property, and this can imply that the standard against which an item is contrasted lacks the property in question. In order to show that this approach is more suitable for the Tibetic languages, especially the West Tibetan varieties spoken in Ladakh, I will not only discuss the standard ways of expressing differences, but also some more marginal constructions at the limit of acceptability.