You only need a scalar "only"
- We propose a compositional analysis for sentences of the kind "You only have to go to the North End to get good cheese", referred to as the Sufficiency Modal Construction in the recent literature. We argue that the SMC is ambiguous depending on the kind of ordering induced by only. So is the exceptive construction – its cross-linguistic counterpart. Only is treated as inducing either a 'comparative possibility' scale or an 'implication-based' partial order on propositions. The properties of the 'comparative possibility' scale explain the absence of the prejacent presupposition that is usually associated with only. By integrating the scalarity into the semantics of the SMC, we explain the polarity facts observed in both variants of the construction. The sufficiency meaning component is argued to be due to a pragmatic inference.
Download full text files
Additional Services
| Author: | Sveta Krasikova, Ventsislav Zhechev |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-309739 |
| URL: | http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/188.html |
| ISSN: | 1435-9588 |
| ISSN: | 0947-7055 |
| Parent Title (English): | Proceedings of the Sinn und Bedeutung 10 : 10th annual meeting of the Gesellschaft für Semantik, October 13 - 15, 2005, Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin; ZASPil Vol. 44 |
| Publisher: | Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung |
| Place of publication: | Berlin |
| Document Type: | Part of a Book |
| Language: | English |
| Year of Completion: | 2006 |
| Year of first Publication: | 2006 |
| Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
| Release Date: | 2013/11/14 |
| GND Keyword: | Lexikologie; Gradpartikel; Formale Semantik; Thema-Rhema-Gliederung; Englisch |
| Volume: | 44 |
| Page Number: | 11 |
| First Page: | 199 |
| Last Page: | 209 |
| HeBIS-PPN: | 378088718 |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 42 Englisch, Altenglisch / 420 Englisch, Altenglisch |
| Sammlungen: | Linguistik |
| Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Syntax |
| Linguistik-Klassifikation: Semantik / Semantics | |
| Linguistik-Klassifikation: Lexikologie/Etymologie / Lexicology/Etymology | |
| Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte: | ZAS papers in linguistics : ZASPiL / ZASPiL 44 = Proceedings of the Sinn und Bedeutung 10 |
| : | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-306862 |
| Licence (German): |  Deutsches Urheberrecht |
