[Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy] Focus, Evaluativity, and Antonymy Volume 104 (A Study in the Semantics of Only and its Interaction with Gradable Antonyms) ||

This book uncovers properties of focus association with 'only' by examining the interaction between the particle and bare (or “evaluative”) gradable terms. Its empirical building blocks are paradigms involving upward-scalar terms like 'few' and 'rarely', and their downward-scalar antonyms 'many' and 'frequently', an area that has not been studied previously in the literature. The empirical claim is that associations of the former type give rise to unexpected readings, and the proposed theoretical explanation draws on the properties of the latter type of association. In presenting the details, the book deconstructs the so-called scalar presupposition of 'only' and derives it from constraints against its vacuous use. This view is then combined with a semantics of the evaluative adjectives 'many' and 'few' to explain why the unavailable (but expected) meanings of the given constructions are unavailable. The attested (but unexpected) readings of 'only+few/rarely' associations are derived from independently motivated LFs in which the degree expressions are existentially closed. Finally, the book provides new findings, based on the core proposal, about 'only if' constructions, and about the interaction between 'only' and other upward-scalar modified numerals (comparatives, and 'at most'). The book thus provides new data and a new theoretical view of the semantic properties of 'only', and connects it to the semantics of gradable expressions. Acknowledgements 7 Contents 8 1 Introduction 10 1.1 Overview 11 1.2 Three Illustrations of Empirical Claim 14 1.2.1 First Illustration: Betting Scenarios 14 1.2.2 Second Illustration: In Fact, and Downward Entailing Contexts 16 1.2.3 Third Illustration: Only as a Weakener 18 1.3 Consequences 18 1.4 Theoretical Implications 20 1.5 Book Overview 24 2 Only and Its Inferences 32 2.1 Chapter Preview 32 2.2 The Semantics of Only 33 2.2.1 The Exclusive Inference of Only 37 2.2.1.1 Scalar Only 39 2.2.1.2 Scalarity and Only's Disjunctive Presupposition 43 2.2.2 Interim Summary 46 2.2.3 Only and Its Scalar Presupposition 47 2.2.4 Only and the Ban Against Its Vacuous Use 53 2.2.5 The Scalar Presupposition as the Ban Against VacuousUse 57 2.3 Chapter Summary 60 3 The Positive Morpheme and Its Interaction with Only 62 3.1 Chapter Preview 62 3.2 Background: Many and Few as Gradable Adjectives 63 3.3 pos and the Evaluativity of Many and Few 66 3.3.1 N as a Modal in the Semantics of pos 71 3.4 Interim Summary 74 3.5 The Interaction of pos and Only: Answering the Missing Readings Question 75 3.6 Theory 1 of the Only-pos Interaction 77 3.6.1 Prediction: Negation 80 3.6.2 Prediction: Modals and Their Monotonicity 82 3.6.3 Section Summary 87 3.7 Theory 2 of the Only-pos Interaction 88 3.8 Chapter Summary 93 3.9 The Antonym-Pair Generalization 94 4 The Proposal 98 4.1 Chapter Preview 98 4.2 The Scoping Account: Decomposing Modified Numerals 99 4.3 The Closure Account 107 4.3.1 Van Benthem's Problem 109 4.3.2 Bypassing van Benthem's Problem by Constraining Alternatives 111 4.3.3 Bypassing van Benthem's Problem by Blind Exclusion 119 4.4 Summary 124 4.4.1 The Existence Inference and the Status of Only'sPrejacent 126 4.4.2 A Remark on the Distribution of Existentially-ClosedParses 127 4.5 Comparison with Other Accounts 128 4.5.1 POS as Comparative: Density? 128 4.5.2 BonomiCasalegno1993 129 4.5.3 Beck2012 134 4.6 Extension to Rarely 138 4.7 Chapter Summary 141 Appendix: Constraint on Formal Alternatives 142 5 Only if, Its Interaction with pos, and Its Scalar Presupposition 145 5.1 Chapter Preview 145 5.2 Only if as Only and a Conditional Prejacent 147 5.3 Only if and pos 154 5.4 Only if and Only's Scalar Presupposition 156 5.5 Chapter Summary 158 6 Conclusions and Extensions 160 6.1 Book Summary 160 6.2 Comparatives 163 6.2.1 Antonymy and the -er Morpheme 164 6.2.2 Subsethood in Measure-Phrase Comparatives 165 6.2.3 Innocent Exclusion and Density 169 6.2.4 LessP 173 6.2.5 Summary 174 6.3 At Least and At Most? 175 6.3.1 Alternativehood of Disjuncts and Association with Only 175 6.4 Another Case: Recently 182 Appendix 184 References 186 Index 192 This book uncovers properties of focus association with 'only' by examining the interaction between the particle and bare (or “evaluative”) gradable terms. Its empirical building blocks are paradigms involving upward-scalar terms like 'few' and 'rarely', and their downward-scalar antonyms 'many' and 'frequently', an area that has not been studied previously in the literature. The empirical claim is that associations of the former type give rise to unexpected readings, and the proposed theoretical explanation draws on the properties of the latter type of association. In presenting the details, the book deconstructs the so-called scalar presupposition of 'only' and derives it from constraints against its vacuous use. This view is then combined with a semantics of the evaluative adjectives 'many' and 'few' to explain why the unavailable (but expected) meanings of the given constructions are unavailable. The attested (but unexpected) readings of 'only few/rarely' associations are derived from independently motivated LFs in which the degree expressions are existentially closed. Finally, the book provides new findings, based on the core proposal, about 'only if' constructions, and about the interaction between 'only' and other upward-scalar modified numerals (comparatives, and 'at most'). The book thus provides new data and a new theoretical view of the semantic properties of 'only', and connects it to the semantics of gradable expressions.