諸多語言（如漢語和英語）中的大小形容詞可以修飾級差名詞，具有程度解釋。現有文獻認為正極性大小形容詞可以充當程度修飾詞，而負極性大小形容詞則不可以充當程度修飾詞。本文的討論表明負極性大小形容詞在某些「特殊」情況下也可以充當程度修飾詞。本文利用英語和漢語語料，對這些「特殊」情況進行概括總結，並提出一個位於語意–語用界面的分析。根據這一分析，對於負極性大小形容詞，只有在其標準低於其所修飾的級差名詞的標準的語境中，才不可以充當程度修飾詞。這一分析可以解釋：(1) 為什麼正極性大小形容詞總可以充當程度修飾詞，(2) 為什麼負極性大小形容詞在「一般情況」下不可以充當程度修飾詞，(3) 為什麼負極性大小形容詞在某些「特殊」情況下可以充當程度修飾詞。

Size adjectives in languages such as English or Mandarin Chinese can have degree readings when they modify gradable nouns. The determiner phrase ‘big idiot,’ for example, can characterize an individual with a high degree of idiocy. It has been argued in the literature that this degree use of size adjectives is available only for positive size adjectives (e.g. “big” and “huge”), not for negative size adjectives (e.g. “small” and “tiny”). Although this generalization holds in most cases, in this paper, I identify several “exceptional” cases where negative size adjectives indeed can felicitously modify gradable nouns. I propose an analysis at the interface between the semantics and pragmatics of gradability that can account for both the general applicability of the “Bigness Generalization” and the exceptional cases to it. A negative size adjective can serve as a degree modifier, except in those contexts where the standard for the negative size adjective falls below the standard for the gradable noun that is modified. Such exceptional contexts have a very wide distribution, leading to the perception of general applicability of the Bigness Generalization.